Scientists discover earliest living organisms on Earth to be 4.28bn years old

Tiny filaments, knobs and tubes found in Canadian rocks dated to be up to 4.28 billion years old have been concluded by scientists to be that of the first evidence of living organisms on earth.

To them, that is found to be a time not long after the planet’s formation and hundreds of millions of years before what is currently accepted as evidence for the most ancient life yet found on Earth.

The researchers report their investigation in the journal Nature.

As with all such claims about ancient life, the study is contentious. But the team believes it can answer any doubts.

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The scientists’ putative microbes from Quebec are one-tenth the width of a human hair and contain significant quantities of haematite – a form of iron oxide or “rust”.

Matthew Dodd, who analysed the structures at University College London, UK, claimed the discovery would shed new light on the origins of life.

“This discovery answers the biggest questions mankind has asked itself – which are: where do we come from and why we are here?

“It is very humbling to have the oldest known lifeforms in your hands and being able to look at them and analyse them,” he told BBC News.

The fossil structures were encased in quartz layers in the so-called Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt (NSB).

The NSB is a chunk of ancient ocean floor. It contains some of the oldest volcanic and sedimentary rocks known to science.

 

 

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