Importance Of Living Stromatolites

People often question that ‘when did life on Earth really begins?’ The answer is controversial. Scientists have been arguing about this topic for decades. The study of this topic is vital. It is extremely helpful for scientists to search for life on other planet. Recent researches about the earliest evidence for life on Earth have updated for several times. As technology is improving all the time, new evidences start to appear. In order to find the earliest evidence for life, one must understand the definition of life first. Life must have the ability to transfer energy that they take from the environment to energy they need for growth and reproduction. To be call life, it also must have biological nervous system.

Geologists identify the

They are usually found in shallow water and often associated with microfossils of individual organisms. Stromatolites grow in a similar way as tree, therefore the layers kept a good record of the movement of prokaryotes. It helps confirm that stromatolites are of biological origin. (how is it form) Stromatolites fossils are hard to find nowadays. Due to erosion and plate tectonics, most of stromatolites have been destroyed. This kind of structure only can be found in few places in the world. Western Australia is one of it, and living stromatolites can be found there as

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory claimed that the earliest evidence is in fact 4.1 billion years old, which is 300 million years older than the previous discovery. Their research was published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This time, the evidence was still found in Western Australia in Jack Hill. Jack Hill provides more Hadean samples than anywhere else. The Zircons that are found in Jack Hill Western Australia can be dated 4.4 billion years old. It contains microscopic flecks of graphite. Zircons are almost indestructible; it can outlast erosion and deposition. This means that the zircons can provide a clear physical sample to what was Earth like 4 billion years ago. The team studied over 10,000 samples and identified 656 zircons that are containing dark specks. Later on they closely analysed 79 of them with Raman spectroscopy and found out that one of it contains primary graphite inclusions in two locations and it is 4.1 billion years old. This team also did the carbon isotope test and found that the Carbon-12 was consistent with a biogenic origin. The team came out with different non-biological process that could explain this, but they favour the idea that due to plate tectonic movements the organic matter in the sediments was