【】

  发布时间:2025-04-23 21:03:54   作者:玩站小弟   我要评论
Ancient rocks in northwestern Canada may contain the oldest evidence of life on Earth.Scientists hav 。

Ancient rocks in northwestern Canada may contain the oldest evidence of life on Earth.

Scientists have discovered remains of microorganisms that likely thrived around 3.8 billion years ago near volcanic vents on the seafloor, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.

SEE ALSO:Scientists are firing lasers at dinosaur fossils, and the result is awesome

Iron-dwelling bacteria left behind tiny, rusty filaments and tubes, which were found encased in layers of quartz in the Nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt near Quebec.

"The fact we unearthed them from one of the oldest-known rock formations suggests we've found direct evidence of one of Earth's oldest life forms," Dominic Papineau, the study lead and a lecturer at University College London (UCL)'s Earth Sciences department, said in a press release.

Mashable ImageA bright red concretion of an iron-rich and silica-rich rock, which contains microfossils.Credit: Dominic Papineau

"This discovery helps us piece together the history of our planet and the remarkable life on it, and will help to identify traces of life elsewhere in the universe," he said. Most likely, that means searching for evidence of life on Mars.

Mashable Top StoriesStay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news.Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletterBy signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Thanks for signing up!

Prior to this study, the oldest known microfossils were found in western Australia and dated at around 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists also uncovered a set of 3.7 billion-year-old microbial remains found in Greenland, although the evidence for life in the Arctic formations is not nearly as solid as that found in Australia.

Scientists from Canada, the U.K., the United States, Norway and Australia teamed up on the Canadian fossil study.

They searched for fossil evidence in the Nuvvuagittuq belt because it contains some of the Earth's oldest known sedimentary rocks, which were likely formed by deep-sea hydrothermal vents that spewed out scalding water laden with minerals, including iron.

These vents may have hosted bacterial life between 3.8 billion and 4.3 billion years ago, not long after the Earth formed.

Scientific evidence suggests our planet had liquid water at its surface around this time -- and possibly so did Mars.

Mashable ImageRed hematite is seen inside layers of quartz.Credit: matthew dodd

The fact that bacterial life was gushing from deep-sea vents in Earth's earliest years suggests the same might've been happening on the red planet, said Matthew Dodd, a doctoral student at the London Center for Nanotechnology and the study's first author.

The fossil find in Canada poses "exciting questions for extra-terrestrial life," he said in the press release. "We expect to find evidence for past life on Mars [4 billion] years ago, or if not, Earth may have been a special exception."


Featured Video For You
Google Earth Timelapse shows how man has altered the planet in 32 years
  • Tag:

相关文章

  • Florida hurricane forecast remains uncertain, but trends in state's favor

    For days, a war has been raging between two of the premiere computer models used to help predict the
    2025-04-23
  • 四個字的歌曲

    前言:答:四個字的歌曲太多了,現給你摘抄幾個 :周華健的《心如刀割》甄妮的《鐵血丹心》張宇的《曲終人散》李曉傑的《朋友的酒》 ,以下就不在寫演唱者了。《愛我中華》愛情轉移獨家記憶新不了情幸福戀人情非得已從
    2025-04-23
  • 炒包菜絲怎麽做好吃

    包菜絲怎麽炒好吃?素炒包菜這樣炒才好吃,做法步驟:1.把包菜的葉子剝下來,放到清水中投洗幹淨,瀝淨水分,再把包菜切成絲。2.西紅柿切去果蒂,再把西紅柿切成三角塊,尖椒去蒂 。包心菜切絲怎麽炒好吃-九州醉
    2025-04-23
  • 歌曲問情

    前言:答 :《問情》演唱 :蔡幸娟山川載不動太多悲哀歲月禁不起太長的等待春花最愛向風中搖擺黃沙偏要將癡和怨掩埋一世的聰明情願糊塗一身的遭遇向誰訴愛到不能愛聚到終須散繁華過後成一夢啊海水永不幹天也望不穿紅塵
    2025-04-23
  • There's a big piece of fake chicken stuck to this phone case

    If the perfect smartphone case signals a bit about who its owner is, then this silicon fried chicken
    2025-04-23
  • 李子柒螺螄粉袋裝

    前言:李子柒的螺螄粉怎麽那麽難吃?因為每個人的口味各不相同螺獅粉為什麽那麽臭?就像魚香肉絲裏沒有魚 ,夫妻肺片裏麵沒有肺片一樣  ,螺螄粉裏麵沒有螺螄。但,有螺螄不屈不滅的靈魂。在一碗完整的螺螄粉中,螺螄是
    2025-04-23

最新评论