The oldest fossil evidence for early life has been discovered in micrometre-sized pyrite crystals from the Strelley Pool Formation in Western Australia, according to a team led by David Wacey of the University of Western Australia in Crawley.
Sulphur isotope data from these early Archaean rocks suggest that microbes with metabolisms based on sulphur existed almost 3.5 billion years ago, leading to suggestions that the earliest microbial ecosystems were sulphur-based.
Fossilised cells from 3.5 billion years ago (David Wacey)
Researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.
