New Fossils Show Sulfur-Based Microbes Lived on Earth 3.4 Billion Years Ago, Presenting a New Target for Astrobiology
Could sulfur-based microbes live on Mars? Clusters of islands poked through hot oceans 3.4 billion years ago, when the world still had no oxygen and the seas churned under a pallid, overcast sky. But life thrived on Earth even then, scientists say - and now they have the world's oldest fossils to prove it. There were no plants or algae to photosynthesize and produce oxygen, so microbial life used sulfur for energy and growth, researchers say. Microfossils of these earliest microbes extend the sandstone record of life on Earth by about 300 million years. Related ArticlesComplex Life Evolved One and a Half Billion Years Earlier Than Previously Thought, New Fossils ShowAncient Portable Tool Kit Shows Humans Settled North America Much Earlier Than Scientists ThoughtOldest Human DNA Found in the AmericasTagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, archaea, Australia, fossils, microbial life, microfossils, oldest, paleontology, prehistoric, sulfur, university of oxford, University of Western Australia"This ability to essentially...