“The first certain evidence of life dates from 3.8 bya in Greenland, and the first microbial mat fossils date from 3.5 billion years ago in Western Australia.”
Scientists just discovered life began 300 million years earlier than anyone knew
Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert
Oct. 20, 2015, 12:47 PM
Researchers have found evidence of ancient microorganisms that lived in what is now Western Australia at least 4.1 billion years ago. If confirmed, the discovery suggests that life originated on Earth 300 million years earlier than previously thought.
This would mean that life originated not that long after the formation of our planet - just over 4 million years to be precise - which might sound like a really long time, but it’s a proverbial blink of an eye in the history of Earth. It would also change our understanding of what it takes for life to form here, and, excitingly, elsewhere in the Universe.
“Life on Earth may have started almost instantaneously,†said one of the lead researchers, Mark Harrison, a geochemist from the University of California, Los Angeles. “With the right ingredients, life seems to form very quickly.”
The new research also suggests that life existed on Earth prior to the massive bombardment of the inner Solar System - a period of intense asteroid activity which formed the Moon’s large craters around 3.9 billion years ago.
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http://www.techinsider.io/oldest-fossils-ever-discovered-2015-10
An extraterrestrial origin for the fundamental organic precursors and/or preexisting Life cannot be excluded as the source or sources of Life on the Earth.
quoting article:
"Researchers have found evidence of ancient microorganisms that lived in what is now Western Australia at least 4.1 billion years ago.
If confirmed, the discovery suggests that life originated on Earth 300 million years earlier than previously thought." I don't think that's reported accurately because, as the link I posted above shows:
- 4.6 billion years ago (bya): Earth first formed.
- 4.5 bya: Earth collides with Theia forming the moon.
- 4.1 to 3.8 bya: Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB)
- 4.1 bya: first evidence of possible life found in Western Australia.
- 3.7 bya: first confirmed evidence of life found in Greenland rocks.
- 3.5 bya: first microbial mat (stromatolite) fossils found in Western Australia.
Point is, we are not talking about just four million years from Earth's formation to first suggestions of life here, rather, we are talking about four hundred million years -- from 4.5 to 4.1 bya.
Yes, that is still an astonishingly short time for such a miraculous event -- life!
But it's a bit more than "instantaneous."
Stromatolite fossils:
