Oldest Evidence of Life Found in 3.95-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

     Scientists recently found material generated by microbes in a 3.95 billion year old rock in northern Labrador in northeastern Canada. Finding any signs of life in rocks between 4 billion and 3.6 billion years ago is sparse because that is during the Eoarchean Era where life started to form. Earliest hints of life were from 3.7 billion years ago in a rock in Greenland found in 2016, and a rock with hints of life from 3.8 billion years ago found in 1996 in Akilia Island, Greenland. Tsuyoshi Komiya, a geologist at the University of Tokyo said that this may be the oldest evidence found of life. "The researchers examined the oldest known metasedimentary rocks, ones made from sediment that got buried underneath subsequent rock and subjected to high pressures and temperatures, causing the sediment to crystallize." The carbon isotopes show that the Labrador rocks were of biological origin. The study was exciting and to know how far back it was when life started, and I feel like it is amazing that Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

https://www.livescience.com/60537-oldest-evidence-of-life-found.html

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