World's Oldest Known Fossil

[shunyadragon]

Source: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/03/01/Paleontologists-find-worlds-oldest-fossil/9941488397598/

Paleontologists find world's oldest fossil

"This discovery helps us piece together the history of our planet and the remarkable life on it, and will help to identify traces of life elsewhere in the universe," said study leader Dominic Papineau.

March 1 (UPI) -- Scientists have discovered the world's oldest fossil, the remains of a microorganism that lived between 3.7 billion and 4.3 billion years ago. Earth itself is believed to have formed just 4.5 billion years ago.

The signature of the iron-eating bacteria -- its tiny filaments and tubes -- was found encased in a piece of quartz excavated from the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt in Quebec, Canada.

"Our discovery supports the idea that life emerged from hot, seafloor vents shortly after planet Earth formed," Matthew Dodd, a PhD student at University College London, said in a news release. "This speedy appearance of life on Earth fits with other evidence of recently discovered 3,700 million year old sedimentary mounds that were shaped by microorganisms."

Prior to the latest discovery, the oldest known microfossil was a fragment of mineralized bacteria found in Western Australia and dated at 3.4 billion years old. But some scientists suggested the fossil was a non-biological anomaly in the rock.

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[Sparko]

ECREE!!! We already knew where the world's oldest fossil was. Right here! Mossy hasn't gone anywhere!

[shunyadragon]

The important implications of this discovery are: (1) The hypothesis that abiogenesis took place in hot vents in the ocean, likely in the mid ocean ridgeshave gained more acceptance. (2) The very early appearance of life on earth demonstrates that life likely formed quickly when conditions were favorable very early in earth's history. This indicates the dice are loaded to form life when conditions are right.

[Yttrium]

The important implications of this discovery are: (1) The hypothesis that abiogenesis took place in hot vents in the ocean, likely in the mid ocean ridgeshave gained more acceptance. (2) The very early appearance of life on earth demonstrates that life likely formed quickly when conditions were favorable very early in earth's history. This indicates the dice are loaded to form life when conditions are right.

Sounds very interesting. It would be nice if we could reproduce those conditions some day, with all the right ingredients, and see if we can coax something to happen.

[shunyadragon]

Sounds very interesting. It would be nice if we could reproduce those conditions some day, with all the right ingredients, and see if we can coax something to happen.

Actually that is the direction of current research:

Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol2016116

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor

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The fortunate very rare luck of finding this fossil is amplified by the fact that seafloor vents and ocean sea floor spreading zones are very temporal on the landscape of the history of continental drift.

[shunyadragon]

Another ancient fossil has been discovered supporting the theory that the first life began and evolved around hot springs. It is not as old as the previous found, but it is significant as a different type of fossil microbial fossil.

[Faber]

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[shunyadragon]

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[shunyadragon]

Part of the argument for the first life forming around hot springs in the up welling of ocean ridges is that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old by the evidence, the first continents formed about 3.7 billion years ago or earlier based on oldest continental crust found in western Greenland, and ancient zircon crystals. The oldest known life is at present is ~ 3.7 million years old found in rocks formed by hot springs at up welling zones of what we describe as mid ocean ridges.

The up welling zones began to occur as the cyclic currents under the new volcanic crust began to push up the underlyining material in up weling zones corresponding to subduction zones where the first continental lighter material oozed up from the material being subducted.