Discover fossils of some of the first living beings on Earth

2011/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

Two geologists from Osford University and the University of Western Australia have discovered fossils of unicellular living beings on a former beach in western Australia. The antiquity of the fossils is 3,400 million years and, according to the researchers, it is possible that it is the oldest remains of life that have been found.

Earlier traces of life have been found as old as the present, even older, but some experts have questioned the existence of real fossils. In fact, at that time there were only unicellular beings, so the spheres and filaments that can be found in the sediments can be irregularities or impurities typical of the sediments instead of remains of ancient cells.

In current research, however, they have gone beyond the morphological aspect of footprints and have focused on the chemical structure to determine whether the findings are actually fossil. And they have found indications of it. It has been proven that the possible carbon isotopes of the cell walls are different from those of the surrounding rocks. In addition, the internal sulphides of these structures differ from those of the surrounding sediments. This means that microorganisms processed environmental sulphides as a source of energy.