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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Western Australia's famous 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites contain microbial remains of some of the earliest life on Earth, UNSW scientists have found.

Scientists have found exceptionally preserved microbial remains in some of Earth's oldest rocks in Western Australia—a major advance in the field, offering clues for how life on Earth originated.

The UNSW researchers found the organic matter in stromatolites—fossilized microbial structures—from the ancient Dresser Formation in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The stromatolites have been thought to be of biogenic origin ever since they were discovered in the 1980s. However, despite strong textural evidence, that theory was unproven for nearly four decades, because scientists hadn't been able to show the definitive presence of preserved organic matter remains—until today's publication in Geology.

"This is an exciting discovery—for the first time, we're able to show the world that these stromatolites are definitive evidence for the earliest life on Earth," says lead researcher Dr. Raphael Baumgartner, a research associate of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology in Professor Martin Van Kranendonk's team at UNSW.

Professor Van Kranendonk says the discovery is the closest the team have come to a "smoking gun" to prove the existence of such ancient life.

"This represents a major advance in our knowledge of these rocks, in the science of early life investigations generally, and—more specifically—in the search for life on Mars. We now have a new target and new methodology to search for ancient life traces," Professor Van Kranendonk says.

Raphael J. Baumgartner et al. Nano−porous pyrite and organic matter in 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites record primordial life, Geology (2019). DOI: 10.1130/G46365.1

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