Layered rock in India shows potential signs of microbial life dating to 3.5 billion years ago
Researchers have identified 3.5-billion-year-old microbial mats within carbon-rich chert rock in India. This discovery provides new evidence regarding the origins of life on Earth and the environmental conditions of the Paleoarchean era.
Why it matters
Understanding the earliest forms of life helps scientists reconstruct the biological history of Earth and informs the search for biosignatures on other planets.
edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Outcrop photo showing dark carbonaceous bands in chert. Credit: Trisrota Chaudhuri A team of researchers reports that they may have found rock containing some of the earliest forms of microbial life on Earth. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , describes the biosignatures found in this 3.5-billion-year-old, carbon-rich, layered rock, called chert.
Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Unsurprisingly, scientists are interested in figuring out how and when life arose on the planet. While ancient rocks hold clues about early life, finding these clues is difficult because Earth's oldest rocks have been heated, squeezed and chemically altered.
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