Strange Bacterial Life Forms Emerged Less Than 800 Million Years After Earth's Formation
Remains of microorganisms at least 3.77 billion years old have been discovered by an international team led by University College London scientists, providing direct evidence of one of the oldest life forms on Earth. Tiny filaments and tubes formed by bacteria that lived on iron were found encased in quartz layers in Quebec, Canada, where some of the oldest sedimentary rocks known on Earth exist. These rocks likely formed part of an iron-rich deep sea hydro-thermal vent system that provided a habitat for Earth's first life forms between 3.77 and 4.30 billion years ago. Earth was formed 4.54 billion years ago, so it appears that life on Earth emerged rather early in its history.
Comments:
Great article Guy. These articles are very often fascinating and I always take the time to read them. Thanks for the good work.<br><br>Bill Carter
Bill:<br><br>Thanks for the kind words.<br><br>I hope all of the folks on Astromart enjoy reading these news items as much as I enjoy posting them. I try to select topics related to discoveries that are unique and often not expected -- Those are the ones that interest me the most.<br><br>At times I'll try to explain the science behind the discoveries as best as I can, but frankly even the experts who "live and breathe" this stuff often have a difficult time reconciling their findings with what they "think" they know.<br><br>It seems that the more we learn about the Universe, the more we realize how little we really do know.<br><br>Thanks again,<br><br>Guy Pirro <br><br><br><br><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="italic"><i>William Carter said:</i><br><br>Great article Guy. These articles are very often fascinating and I always take the time to read them. Thanks for the good work.<br><br>Bill Carter </div></blockquote>
This perfectly accompanies the book I am currently reading, <i>Life on a young planet: The first three billion years of evolution on Earth</i> by Andrew H. Knoll. Thank you!
I wonder about the idea that micro-organisms arrived on earth via meteorites and took hold in the sea. Very interesting article. Thanks!
I guess this means I'll have to add to my collection of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites and stromatolites if I want to keep the theme of collecting the earliest forms of and precursors to life in this solar system. Very informative article. This not only increases the likelihood of life existing in the universe outside of earth, it means we're getting closer to discovering how it all started.
The headline says life was found but the article says it could be the result of a life form. Big difference. You cannot go from supposition to fact with, well, facts.
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