Scientists come closer to understanding how life on Earth started: 1.75 bln-year-old clue found

In a recent study, published in the journal Nature, a group of researchers found tiny fossils in the Australian desert that show the earliest signs of photosynthesis. These fossils are from cyanobacteria, a type of organism that has been around for a long time, about 3.5 billion years.

Some of these cyanobacteria developed structures called thylakoids within their cells, where photosynthesis happens. This process may have released a lot of oxygen into the Earth's atmosphere, known as the Great Oxidation Event. It is a period in the Paleoproterozoic Era of Early Earth when a notable increase in oxygen concentration in both the Earth's atmosphere and the shallow ocean caused the extinction of many existing organisms around 2.4 billion years ago.

The discovery sets a new timeline

The new discovery extends the fossil record by at least 1.2 billion years, suggesting that these photosynthesizing cells appeared about 1.75 billion years ago.

The fossils were found in ancient rocks in northern Australia, and they contain chlorophyll, a pigment that helps organisms absorb sunlight during photosynthesis. This finding suggests that photosynthesis happened much earlier than previously thought, possibly explaining the increase in oxygen levels.

The researchers believe that studying similar fossil cells worldwide could provide more insight into the evolution of photosynthetic organisms and early ecosystems on Earth. They plan to analyze more fossil cells to see if they match up with this new timeline, hoping to expand our understanding of how oxygen and cells played a role in the origins of life on Earth.

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