2-Billion-Year-Old Squiggles Could Be The Earliest Evidence Of A Mobile Life Form
The tube-like structures embedded within the rock.Image: A. El Albani and A. Mazurier/IC2MP CNRS – Université de Poitiers
The reported discovery of 2.1-billion-year-old fossilized track marks etched in sedimentary rock is pushing back the earliest evidence of self-propelled movement by an organism on Earth by a whopping 1.5 billion years. New research published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests ancient life on Earth had acquired the capacity for self-propelled locomotion at least 2.1 billion years ago, and not 570 million years ago as previous research suggested. Image: A. El Albani and A. Mazurier/IC2MP CNRS – Université de Poitiers
Back in 2010, the lead author of the new study, Abderrazak El Albani from CNRS-Université de Poitiers, discovered the earliest evidence of complex multicellular life at the Francevillian Basin in the Haut-Ogooué Province of Gabon in central Africa.
Source: gizmodo.com