Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Earth Science

Scientists Confirm There Was Life On Earth 3.5 Billion Years Ago (qz.com) 176

Posted by BeauHD from the new-kids-on-the-block dept.
Paleobiologists have confirmed today that life forms existed some 3.5 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses the latest techniques to date the most aged remains available. Quartz reports: The research, led by paleobiologist William Schopf of the University of California-Los Angeles and geoscientist John Valley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been in the works for what seems a long time to most, but which the academics know is merely a blink of the eye in terms of life on Earth. The specimens in question, mostly now-extinct bacteria and microbes, were found in 1982 at the Apex Chert, a rock formation in Western Australia, in a piece of rock. In 1993, based on radiometric analyses of the rock, and the shape of fossils, Schopf dated them as biological beings that existed 3.45 billion years ago. The rock held the earliest direct evidence of life, Schopf thought, and inferred from it that creatures existed over a billion years earlier than anyone previously believed. But some scientists argued that this claim was too speculative and that the microfossils, invisible to the naked eye, were really just weirdly-shaped bits of rock, strange minerals that only seem to contain biological specimens but do not.

Since then, technology has improved and Schopf and Valley teamed up to devise a new way to analyze the rock specimen, which now lives in the London Museum of Natural History. Valley spent 10 years developing a method to analyze the individual species that are shaped like tiny cylinders and filaments. Any type of organic substance (including both rock and microbe) contains a characteristic mix of carbon isotopes. Using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (a very rare tool, one of which is housed at the University of Wisconsin), the scientists were able to separate the carbon in each fossil into isotopes. That way, they could measure the carbon-isotope makeup of each fossil, and compare those to fossil-less rocks from the same era. [...] After analyzing the microfossils individually, they identified five species, concluding that two were photosynthesizers, two were methane-consuming organisms, and one produced methane.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Scientists Confirm There Was Life On Earth 3.5 Billion Years Ago More

Scientists Confirm There Was Life On Earth 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Comments Filter:

  • Evolution (Score:3, Funny)

    by theweatherelectric ( 2007596 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @02:03AM (#55766957)
    And 3.5 billion years later life spends its days on Slashdot. Progress?

  • I wonder... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wbr1 ( 2538558 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @07:01AM (#55767571)
    Could the same procedure be used on Alan Hills 84001?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Old news (Score:3)

    by Maury Markowitz ( 452832 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @07:08AM (#55767585) Homepage

    It has been generally accepted that there was life at 3.45Gya since 2013.

    http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131113/DAA1VSC01.html

  • You old bastard.
  • It's a being, but not as we know it.
  • This variant developed into politicians.

Slashdot Top Deals

As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare

Close