A drilling operation in South Africa’s Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains extracted 3.2-billion-year-old cores that hold some of Earth’s earliest terrestrial life.
, says Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol who is unaffiliated with BASE. “The genomic record is independent and consistent with the idea that those were early ancestors of cyanobacteria.”
The cores could contain other scientific treasures. In 2010, Emmanuelle Javaux, an astrobiologist at the University of Liège,up to 300 micrometers in diameter, hundreds of times the size of a typical bacterium, in mudstones extracted from a gold mine in the Moodies Group. Some thought the jumbo microbes were the world’s oldest eukaryotes—organisms with complex cells like our own—by 1 billion years, but confirmation proved elusive.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Powerful space laser detected by South African telescopeAstronomers have detected a powerful radiowave laser, known as a megamaser, in space. This record-breaking megamaser is the most distant one ever observed at 5 billion light-years away from Earth.
Read more »
South African flood victims search for bodies of lost loved onesOn South Africa's eastern coast, residents are searching for survivors of devastating floods that have killed around 400 people
Read more »
Death toll in South African storm rises to 443Heavy rainfall in the region earlier this week led to flooding and mudslides, destroying infrastructure and killing hundreds.
Read more »
The Power of Music: North and South Koreans brought to tears by emotional performanceIf you had any doubt about the power of music, watch this. PyeongChangPeaceForum Sponsored by Gangwon Province South Korea.
Read more »
South Euclid police investigate death of 10-year-old boyThe Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has identified the victim as Eion Boyette, of South Euclid.
Read more »
South Carolina inmate picks firing squad over electric chairA South Carolina law set electrocution as the default method and added a firing squad option after officials were unable to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection, the state's third method.
Read more »