Oldest fossils found in Greenland, from time Earth was like Mars

OSLO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The earliest fossil evidence of life on Earth has been found in rocks 3.7 billion years old in Greenland, raising chances of life on Mars aeons ago when both planets were similarly desolate, scientists said on Wednesday. Scientists have discovered the world’s oldest fossils — about 3.7 billion years old — which pushes back the previous record by 220 million years and captures the earliest history of our planet. Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago and the relative sophistication of stromatolites indicated that life had evolved quickly after a bombardment by asteroids ended about 4 billion years ago. "Stromatolites contain billions of bacteria ... they're making the equivalent of apartment complexes," said Martin Van Kranendonk, a co-author at the University of New South Wales who identified the previously oldest fossils, dating from 3.48 billion years ago. It points to a rapid emergence of life on Earth.”

The one-to-four centimeter (0.4-1.6 inch) high Isua stromatolites—exposed after the melting of a snow patch in the Isua Greenstone Belt—matched other biological evidence on the evolution of the genetic code that placed the origins of life in a similar period, Nutman said. “Rather than speculating about potential early environments, for the first time we have rocks that we know record the conditions and environments that sustained early life,” said Prof. Bennett. Writing in the journal Nature, they said: 'The recognition of 3,700 million-years-old biogenic stromatolites within Isua dolomites indicates that near the start of the preserved sedimentary record, atmospheric CO2 was being sequestered by biological activity.
The oldest fossil (stromatolite) that had life is discovered in the melting snow at the Isua Greenstone Belt of Greenland.