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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Fossil Older Than Oxygen on Earth Found in Australia |
| 2013-01-03 |
| [US NEWS] Researchers have found fossils of bacteria that are nearly 3.5 billion years old, believed to be the oldest visible fossils ever uncovered. Older than dirt, in fact... The fossils, found in northwest Australia's Pilbara region, are from a time before oxygen existed on Earth and are from just one billion years after Earth's formation, according to Old Dominion University's Nora Noffke, one of the researchers who worked on the project. The fossils are imprints found on sandstone that was formed when microbes interacted with rock sediment. Scientists have discovered older rocks, but Noffke says those rocks have eroded to the point where traces of life are all but impossible to find. "I can confidently say the structures we're working on cannot be found on older rocks--until now, there has been nothing that is this well preserved," Noffke says. "There are some that are much older, but they experience metamorphosis--anything that's on them has been overprinted and it's difficult to reconstruct what was there." The ancient microbes likely fed on sulfur, "Mmmm! Brimstone! My favorite!" as many bacterial organisms do today. The discovery could spur further searches for life on Mars and other places where sedimentary rock is more well-preserved than on Earth. The Mars Curiosity Rover currently has instruments on it to look for similar fossils, she says. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 And you only THOUGHT Hillary was inna hospital..... |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2013-01-03 20:54 |
| #6 Damn kids and your iOxygen! Get off my lawn! |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2013-01-03 17:03 |
| #5 lotp, you're not alone. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-01-03 14:30 |
| #4 Pardon me while I quibble. These bacteria are from a time before free oxygen existed Thanks. I feel better now. |
| Posted by: lotp 2013-01-03 11:48 |
| #3 Helen Thomas commented: "punk!" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-01-03 08:49 |
| #2 For those of you who were wondering where Dick Clark was buried. JM: I think I have had some of that french onion soup he was talking about. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2013-01-03 07:06 |
| #1 AUSTRALIA! Dat can't be - I know for a fact from STAR TREK:TNG that Picard nemesis "Q" said all life on Earth began as biotic, microbial "soup" in ancient France! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-01-03 00:17 |