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researchers found the oldest fossil on earth, from 3.7 billion years ago
STATES CHRONICLE – Global warming has a lot of side effects, but who would have thought that it will help us discover the oldest fossil on Earth? Researchers found a 3.7 billion-year-old fossil in Greenland. They believe that is the oldest that was ever found. Moreover, it seems that the fossil does not come from our planet and it could be from Mars.
Although researchers believed that life on our planet began 3.8 billion years ago, there was no proof that this really happened. Finding the oldest fossil on Earth helps them to prove when the life started on our planet. The discovery was made on the Isua rocks, a place that was covered with snow for many years. The global warming melts the snow and this is how they managed to find the fossil.
Before this fossil, the oldest one was 3.5 billion years old and was discovered in Western Australia. If you wondered how this fossil looks like, you should know that it has between one and four cm. It has fossilized groups of microbes, similar to the ones found in Australia.
The difference is that this fossil is older, which helps the researchers to understand more about how life on our planet started. One of the authors of the study explained that this discovery could mean that life on Mars is possible. At that time, our planet was similar to Mars, with liquid water on the surface and orbiting a sun.
If life on Earth was able to develop, the same thing could happen on Mars. J. William Scopf, a pioneering paleobiologist at the University of California confirmed this theory. He said that the origin of life is a lot faster and easier than we could imagine. There are many planets similar to Earth in the Universe, so life can be anywhere. Although he was not involved in the study, he has the same opinion as the researchers who discovered the fossil.
We will see what new information they will discover abut the oldest fossil on Earth. Humans have wanted for centuries to know where they came from and how life on our planet was possible. It seems that researchers are starting to find out more details. Global warming could lead to more discoveries as many fossils are hidden because of the snow.
Image source: Flickr.com
