The soil has been home for many microorganisms. Ever since life started, many of these microorganisms have been around, some of them far longer than most larger living things have. Now there is evidence that the Earth's soil has life much older than earlier believed.
The soil has so many living organisms. Even eons of years ago it has already been home for microorganisms. A team from the University of Oregon have gone to northern Australia in search of ancient microorganisms that have existed much earlier than most scientists believed. They have found very tiny fossils that need a microscope to look at. These tiny fossils are said to be parts of whole organisms.
The rocks that these tiny fossils come from were initially thought to be of marine origin. The research team from the University of Oregon have decided to look closer on those rocks, however, and found that they have experienced evaporation on land. This shows that the rocks have been on land far longer. The rocks are estimated to be three billion years old.
Life then had already been on land much earlier than expected. This has been the contention of Gregory Retallack, a paleontologist from the University of Oregon and the lead author of the study. By contrast, the Earth is said to have been formed some four billion years ago. Life on Earth then has been forming even though the planet was still relatively young.
Five different fossils have been studied so far by the team, according to Phys Org. These micro-fossils range from actinobacteria to those that look like purple sulfur bacteria. While these might be small, Retallack said that they already form a terrestrial micro-ecosystem.
The findings by the team from the University of Oregon might contradict another study which says that stromatolites have emerged from the sea some 3.7 billion years ago, as Heritage Daily says in its report. These organisms came from the sea and eventually found their way on land. Retallack though maintains that the findings mean that there is evidence of life on land far earlier.
No doubt there would be much discussion about it. So far the evidence shows that Earth's soil has life much older than earlier believed. A report earlier also states that life on land probably evolved 300 million years earlier than expected.
