While the early formation of life on Earth provides some evidence in the direction of life being common, it is far from conclusive, and in particular does not rule out the possibility that abiogenesis has only occurred once in the history of the universe....
Although it is not known when or where life on Earth began, some of the earliest habitable environments may have been submarine-hydrothermal vents. Here we describe putative fossilized microorganisms that are at least 3,770 million and possibly 4,280 million years old in ferruginous sedimentary roc...
摘要: The evidence for early life and its initial evolution on Earth is linked intimately with the geological evolution of the early Earth. The environment of the early Earth would be considered extreme by...关键词:early Earth extreme environment early habitat early life prokaryotes ...
After the advent of life, fermentation must have contributed H2. This is still so in limited parts of the biosphere. As far as any free oxygen was formed by action of light, it combined readily with reduced components of the crust, including hydrides, sulfides, and ferrous iron. The ...
We are still not sure how life originated on Earth. It could be a heavenly masterpiece, an astronomical anomaly, or a series of mutations and adaptations. There is evidence that favors each theory. Regardless, patterns in similarity appear to link some organisms more closely than others. ...
The major weakness in our understanding of these patterns up to this point is that has so far been guided exclusively by correlative evidence. We still cannot yet provide a complete explanation of how and why these high, low-slope tidal flat environments tend to produce micro-topographic bed ...
Although, with regard to most parameters, the rock record shows little evidence of an environment on the early Earth vastly different from that of today, there are several biologically important aspects of the environment that are likely to have changed. These include: (1) The length of the da...
ago. The oldest fossil evidence from 3.45 b.y. old sediments shows that life was widespread and thriving in and around hydrothermal vents and in evaporitic, littoral environments, exposed to high UV radiation. Given these conditions, life must have been extremophile by definition. Although there...
"This is an exciting discovery -- for the first time, we're able to show the world that these stromatolites are definitive evidence for the earliest life on Earth," lead researcher Dr Raphael Baumgartner from UNSW said. Ever since their discovery in 1980 it has been hotly contested whether...
This could explain why the evidence of the earliest life on Earth appears during the Hadean — maybe the planet was less inhospitable during that eon than previously thought. This artist's illustration shows a close-up of the early Earth, revealing magma extrusion on the surface and the scars...