Beginning of Life

Ian Goddard (igoddard@erols.com)
Thu, 07 Nov 1996 04:12:52 -0500


From: Newspot <newspot@mx.merc.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 1996 16:58:57 MST

*** Scientists find oldest evidence of life on Earth

Life may have emerged from Earth's primordial slime millions of years
before scientists thought it did, a team of international researchers
reported Wednesday. They said they had found evidence that bacteria or
something equally tiny lived in what is now Greenland 3.8 billion
years ago--not very long after the planet became fit for life.
Currently, the earliest known fossils are 3.5 billion years old. The
researchers found traces of carbon in apatite crystals that seem to
have been created by living organisms. For the full text story, see
http://www.merc.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=458258-6c7