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World's Oldest Fossils Found in Ancient Australian Beach
ScienceNOW ^ | 21 August 2011 | Elizabeth Pennisi

Posted on 08/22/2011 8:23:26 PM PDT by neverdem

Enlarge Image
sn-fossils.jpg
Old stomping grounds. This landscape in Western Australia is home to these very ancient fossil cells (inset).
Credit: David Wacey/University of Western Australia

When Martin Brasier discovered what looked like fossil cells in between the cemented sand grains of an ancient beach in Western Australia, he knew he had his work cut out for him. One of the biggest challenges for geologists is deciding when a fossil is really a fossil, particularly when it comes to early life. There are no bones to go by, and the mineralized spheres representing simple cells and sometimes filaments could easily be crystals or other irregularities in the sediment itself. What's more, Brasier, a geologist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, has been one of the most vocal critics of many of the most ancient fossils other researchers have found.

But now Brasier and David Wacey, a geologist at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, say they have discovered 3.4-billion-year-old cells, possibly the oldest fossils ever found. Other microorganisms as old or older have been reported, including an extensive set of photosynthesizing bacteria 20 kilometers away from Brasier and Wacey's find, but Brasier and others have questioned the validity of those fossils. The two scientists say their chemical analyses of the minerals near the cells suggest the microorganisms depended on sulfur for fuel. Such a beach might have been life's first breeding ground, Brasier says.

The work represents "some of the best evidence for the nature of Earth's earliest life," says Bruce Runnegar, a geologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

Brasier first suspected the ancient rock formation would be a good place to look because it so closely resembled a modern beach, indicating that the sediments had not been badly heated or distorted since they were laid down. Wacey and colleagues analyzed the rock formation that included this ancient shoreline to verify the beach was about 3.4 billion years old.

The fossil cells they discovered looked promising: They were hollow, and some were clustered together in groups surrounded by what looked like a membrane. "The morphology is very cell-like," Brasier says. The cells were also patchily distributed in the sediment, just as modern bacteria tend to congregate near sources of food, the researchers report today in Nature Geoscience.

Turning to chemistry, Wacey and Brasier found that the apparent cell walls contained a different isotope, or version, of carbon from the surrounding rock. They also found tiny mineral crystals containing a different version of sulfur in and around the cells—evidence that the microorganisms were processing sulfur from the environment to extract energy.

Earth at that time was nothing like it is today. Oceans were likely a steamy 45ºC; oxygen was lacking. So it makes sense that early life depended on sulfur-containing compounds, Brasier says. Sulfur bacteria are common today in hydrothermal vents, hot springs, and low-oxygen environments. Other researchers have argued that early bacteria were photosynthetic or used hydrogen for energy. "In the end, it will probably turn out there were a wide variety of organisms using a wide range of metabolisms," says Stanford University geologist Donald Lowe.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: fossilmicrobes; fossils; godsgravesglyphs; microbiology; sulfurbacteria

1 posted on 08/22/2011 8:23:32 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Wow!


2 posted on 08/22/2011 8:26:53 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: neverdem; Inyo-Mono

Sometimes it’s fossils, and sometimes it’s just a handful of ancient Tic-Tacs.

Just what was the final word on those supposed Martian fossil bacteria, anyway?


3 posted on 08/22/2011 8:30:14 PM PDT by sinanju
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To: sinanju

YAWN!


4 posted on 08/22/2011 8:32:06 PM PDT by DAC21
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To: neverdem

Helen Thomas and her relatives.


5 posted on 08/22/2011 8:36:54 PM PDT by mardi59 (Cl)
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To: Mother Abigail; EBH; vetvetdoug; Smokin' Joe; Global2010; Battle Axe; null and void; ...
micro ping - fossilized microbes, now that's a bit of a stretch...

Lager Beer's Mystery Yeast

6 posted on 08/22/2011 8:40:53 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: sinanju
Just what was the final word on those supposed Martian fossil bacteria, anyway?

Check the abstract at the link.

7 posted on 08/22/2011 8:44:41 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: SunkenCiv

Fossilized bacteria on an ancient 3.4 Billion year old beach in Australia.


8 posted on 08/22/2011 8:59:35 PM PDT by SatinDoll (NO FOREIGN NATIONALS AS OUR PRESIDENT!)
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To: neverdem

What an amazing find. That’s really going way back to almost the beginning.


9 posted on 08/22/2011 9:06:47 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: sinanju
Just what was the final word on those supposed Martian fossil bacteria, anyway?

I don't know about the bacteria, but some jerk carved a fake plant fossil on Mars that pissed NASA off so much that they ground it up. Served those frauds right, endangering the legitimacy of such an expensive space mission like that with some fossil prank. /s


10 posted on 08/22/2011 9:09:46 PM PDT by Talisker (History will show the Illuminati won the ultimate Darwin Award.)
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To: neverdem

“World’s Oldest Fossil Found”

No kidding? That’s great! They found Uncle Rufus.


11 posted on 08/22/2011 9:25:06 PM PDT by DPMD (~)
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To: DAC21
I agree.....yet another unknowing expanse of....fossil record based upon a stratum record which is based upon a fossil record,,,,into Ad infinitum (redundant)....that is conjecture beyond understanding.
12 posted on 08/22/2011 9:32:50 PM PDT by Puckster
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To: neverdem

Some of them are in the House and Senate too.


13 posted on 08/22/2011 9:41:43 PM PDT by TheConservativeParty (PALIN 45 -The cure for "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Resisting Tyranny Since 1-20-2009)
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To: mardi59
Helen Thomas and her relatives.

My thoughts exactly.

14 posted on 08/22/2011 9:59:12 PM PDT by Schatze (It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.)
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To: Schatze

15 posted on 08/22/2011 11:28:29 PM PDT by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: neverdem
Damn, now we have to pay to change the school books again! That's about 15 times in 10 years. When will they ever get it right? Every few months there is a "new" discovery that rewrites history.

How do we know this wasn't left here by space aliens and spread by ancient monkey dung or some other "scientific" theory?

16 posted on 08/22/2011 11:34:03 PM PDT by chuckles
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To: SatinDoll; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks SatinDoll and neverdem.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


17 posted on 08/23/2011 2:15:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: chuckles
When will they ever get it right?
They got it right this time, they got it right last time, and will get it right next time. That puts them three steps ahead of you.


18 posted on 08/23/2011 2:25:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv; All

Have you heard anything about, well now there is a special report that we have had a 6.0 earthquake from Virginia to Massachusetts. I was lying down reading, and felt strong shaking for about 10 seconds. Happened less than 15 minutes ago. Tried to call 911, but kept getting buzzy signal.


19 posted on 08/23/2011 11:05:57 AM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin

I understand Barry blamed missing a putt on the earthquake. :-))


20 posted on 08/23/2011 4:54:57 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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