Scientists have found fossil-like hints that some kind of life existed on Earth 4.1 billion years ago — when the planet was a mere volcanic toddler. That’s 300 million years earlier for life to pop up than previously thought.
Not only does that change what scientists thought Earth was like soon after it formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it gives them reason to theorize that life itself is more plentiful throughout the universe because it seemed to start up so quickly.
Researchers examined tiny grains of the mineral zircon from western Australia’s Jack Hills and chemically dated them to when Earth was barely 400 million years old. Inside one of the 160 some grains they found what they call a “chemo-fossil” or a certain mix of carbon isotopes, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Think of it as “the gooey remains of biotic life or anything more complicated,” said study co-author Mark Harrison, a UCLA geochemistry professor.
