From CBC
A team of international scientists has found the oldest record of life on Earth in Northern Quebec, dating back at least 3.8 billion years.Read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/oldest-record-life-earth-found-quebec-1.4004545Our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists believe that about 4.3 billion years ago, water already existed at the surface. However, what isn't known is when the earliest life emerged. Recent research has found life at 3.4 billion years and, most recently 3.7 billion years.
The discovery was made in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in Northern Quebec in rock known as "banded iron formations." These formations existed billions of years ago, a result of organisms reacting with dissolved iron in the water that covered the planet. They appear in rock as red or white layers.
Johnathan O'Neil, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, holds a sample of rock taken from the area where he and the research team discovered microfossils of the oldest life forms ever found on Earth. (Dave Weatherall)
While there is some debate as to whether or not the the age of the rock in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt is 3.8 billion years old or 4.3 billion years old, Jonathan O'Neill, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, believes it to be on the older side. But even if the rock is younger than that, it would still make their finding the oldest record of life on Earth, by 100 million years.
"It's impressive," O'Neill said. "We now have evidence in rock that I can hold in my hand that we had life already established extremely early on the Earth."
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