“This discovery is a new reference” in the investigation of the first traces of life on Earth, said in a statement, Martin Julian Van Kranendonk, a specialist in geology New South-Wales University (Australia) and co-author of a study published in the British journal Nature.
These fossilized structures – called stromatolites – prove that life had appeared about 800 million years after the Earth’s formation, which is the estimated age of 4.5 billion years, according to Allen Nutman the university of Wollongong (Australia) and lead author of the study.
These geological formations emerged to the surface after the thaw of a plate in massive Isua in southwest Greenland.
The structures and chemistry of these fossils leave think of microbial activity and thus “a biological origin,” sign “a rapid emergence of life on Earth,” said Allen Nutman.
The stromatolites, with one to four centimeters tall, corroborate other genetic tests that place the origin of life in this period.
The study said that this discovery could also help the research about life on Mars, considered the planet of the solar system more conducive to the existence of life forms to have an atmosphere with water, in the form of steam and ice.
“There are 3,700 million years ago, Mars was probably still wet, with oceans,” he said the agency France Presse (AFP) Allen Nutman.
“If life on Earth developed rapidly, allowing the formation of things like these stromatolites, may be easier to detect signs of life on Mars,” he added.
Nutman said that “instead of limiting the study to the chemical signature of the planet, you can see the Mars things like stromatolites images.”
Until now, the oldest evidence of life on Earth was found by Australian and Canadian researchers, in Strelley Pool Chert rocks in the region of Pilbara, Australia. It had about 3.5 billion years.
Lusa
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