Geologists Question 'Evidence Of Ancient Life' in 3.7 Billion-Year-Old Rocks
A new analysis of what were initially thought to be microbial fossils in Greenland suggests they might instead just be mineral structures created when ancient tectonic forces squeezed stone.
by Nell Greenfieldboyce
Oct 17, 2018
3 minutes
The oldest evidence of life on Earth probably isn't found in some 3.7 billion-year-old rocks found in Greenland, despite what a group of scientists claimed a couple of years ago.
That's according to a new analysis, published Wednesday in the journal Nature by a different team of experts.
This second group examined structures within the rock that were thought in 2016 to have been produced by communities of single-celled microbes that grew up from the bottom of a shallow, salty sea. A three-dimensional
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