Friday, September 9, 2016

The world's oldest fossils found in Greenland

The 3.7 billion years old fossils is found in rocks in Greenland, dubbed as the oldest ones in the worlds and adding the possibility of life on Mars when the both planets were equally deserted.

As quoted by Reuters, the experts found a small mound, measuring from one to four centimeters on the rocks at Isua, southwest Greenland. The rocks contain fossils of microbes similar to that found in the waters of Bermuda to Australia.
Stromatolites from the Isua area of Greenland may be the oldest fossil evidence of life on Earth. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1diLwP)
If it was true, the mound of microbes are 'stromatolite,' will be the oldest prehistoric fossils than those in Australia, which is evidence of life on Earth 220 million years ago.

"This shows that the Earth is not as hot as hell in 3.7 billion years ago," said lead author Allen Nutman of the University of Wollongong on the research published in the journal Nature.

"That's where life could develop," he said further. Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago and the stromatolite relatives indicated the life evolved quickly after the asteroid bombardment ended about 4 billion years ago.
Allen Nutman (L) of the University of Woollongong and Vickie Bennet of the Australian National University hold a specimen of 3.7 billion-year-old fossils found in Greenland in Canberra, Australia, August 23, 2016. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1diLar)
"Stromatollite contains billions of bacteria, similar to the apartment complex," said Martin Van Kranendonk, one of the authors of the study from the University of New South Wales who discovered the oldest fossils ever, coming from 3.48 billion years ago.

At that time, stromatolite grown into a sticky mass at the bottom of the sea, whereas the Earth like the waters at as Mars, orbiting the Sun that 30 percent dimmer than it is today. 

The findings in Greenland occur after the ice and snow show hidden rocks. In parallel, these findings provided the impetus to study the possibility of life on Mars.

"Suddenly, Mars looks more promising as a place to stay in the past," wrote Abigail Allwood of the California Institute of Technology on the comments column in the journal Nature. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | REUTERS]
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