Evidence of Life on Earth back to 3.5 Billion years ago


Posted by Mike Kremer on Apr 24, 2004 at 21:36
(62.188.48.74)

Tiny, bacteria-like organisms made their home in hardened lava some 3.5 billion years ago scientists reported on Friday in a finding that pushes the limits of when life is known to have started on Earth.
In 1996 researchers did find rocks in Greenland that dated to 3.85 billion years ago, containing what they believed were traces of bacteria
But no one has been able to prove those remains of the very earliest life as indisputable.

In Fridays report, microbes known as Archaea, ate into volcanic rock to form long tubes. A team from the United States, Norway, Canada, and South Africa found evidence of the lava-burrowing archaea in 3.5 billion-year-old lava rock in South Africa.
The researchers said they found carbon along the inside of the tubes that may represent organic waste material left behind by microbes. "There were no plants or animals to eat, so to make a living these microbes adapted to eating volcanic rock. That's all they had"
Archaea still exist today. They make up many of the so-called extremophiles -- organisms found in extreme environments such as undersea vents, hot sulfur springs and in Antarctica.
REUTERS Fri 23 April 2004.


Follow Ups:


Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:
Comments:

[ Forum ] [ New Message ]