The fossil record shows that life began earlier than previously thought

Complex life on Earth may be older than previously thought. The new findings suggest that the conditions for life existed 1.5 billion years earlier than originally thought to have begun. While some scientists are compelled by the theory, others disagree, arguing that optimal conditions alone do not equate to early life formation.

The history of rock

The general scientific consensus was that complex life began on Earth about 635 million years ago. However, a new theory suggests that animal life may have instead begun around 2.1 billion years ago. A study published in August 2024 in the journal Precambrian research detailed what the formations in the rock samples are thought to be fossilssuggests that the conditions necessary for life arose much earlier than previously thought.

Fossil records, found in Gabon, indicate growth phosphorus and oxygen in seawater, “which has previously been linked to accelerated evolution,” he said Science Direct. “We already know that increases in marine phosphorus and oxygen concentrations in seawater are linked to an episode of biological evolution about 635 million years ago,” said Ernest Chi Fru, one of the study’s authors. statement. “Our study adds another, much earlier episode to the record, 2.1 billion years ago.”

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An unusually large amount of macrofossils has been found in the Franceville Basin in Gabon. These macrofossils could indicate the first complex life Earth. “These primordial life forms, sticky, single-celled organisms that would ‘move’ to move and reproduce with spores, were unearthed in a landlocked body of water, indicating that primordial life forms they never spread globally,” he said New York Post. “However, their proliferation ‘set the stage’ for the animal kingdom to evolve before becoming extinct.” Essentially, “the rock chemistry showed evidence that a ‘laboratory’ for life was created even before the formation appeared,” said BBC.

If the theory is correct, “high levels of oxygen and phosphorus were produced by two continental plates colliding underwater, creating volcanic activity,” the BBC said. “This would have provided enough energy to promote increased body size and more complex behavior seen in primitive, simple animal-like life forms such as those found in fossils from this period,” Chi Fru said. Underwater volcanoes have also “restricted and even cut off (Franceville Basin) water from the global ocean to create a shallow, nutrient-rich inland sea.” This could have happened long before the Cambrian Explosion, when most animal life began to form.

However, not everyone agrees with the study’s findings. “I’m not against the idea that there were higher nutrients 2.1 billion years ago, but I’m not convinced that this could lead to diversification to form complex life,” Graham Shields, a professor at University College London, told the BBC . . Others are interested in the findings, but say more evidence is needed to make a true claim. “Ocean cycles of carbon, nitrogen, iron and phosphorus were doing something a bit unprecedented at this point in Earth’s history,” Elias Rugen, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum, told the BBC. “There is nothing to say that complex biological life could not have emerged and thrived 2 billion years ago.”

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The fossil record shows that life began earlier than previously thought

The history of rock

By Matthew. Jr

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The fossil record shows that life began earlier than previously thought

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By Matthew. Jr

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