Oldest Evidence of Life on Earth May Have Been Found in Australia
The fossils of single-celled organisms found in Australia may be the oldest evidence of life on Earth. The fossils are 3.4 billion years old, only about 1 billion years younger than Earth itself, according to a report by a team of scientists from Australia and the United Kingdom. The team was headed by David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Martin Brasier of the University of Oxford.
Wacey and Brasier reported finding the microfossils in rock formed from sand that once covered an ancient beach in what is now Western Australia. The beach lay at the edge of what may have been one of the first sections of solid land to form. At that time, most of Earth was covered by water.
Previously, what were believed to be the oldest known fossils, also found in Western Australia, were dated to 3.465 billion years ago. But a number of scientists have expressed doubts that these structures are fossils from that early in Earth’s history. Similarly, some scientists argued for more research to confirm that the structures presented by Wacey and Brasier actually represent ancient organisms and were not created by nonbiological processes.