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Articles by Holly Betts
Ancestor of all life on Earth evolved earlier than we thought, according to our new timescale
Science may have enabled us to travel in space and trace the history of the entire universe, but it has not yet been able to answer exactly how and when life first arose on our planet. Traditionally, scientists have used the fossil record to try to answer these questions. Yet, as palaeontologists are all too aware, fossils are increasingly hard to find as we move backwards in time. In fact, we don’t have a lot of rock available to study that is older than two and a half billion years.
Ancestor of all life on Earth evolved earlier than we thought, according to our new timescale
In fact, we don't have a lot of rock available to study that is older than two and a half billion years. This is due to the Earth's rock recycling system in which old rocks are destroyed through weathering processes, with the remains getting recycled into new rocks. This causes any rocks that we do have to be highly reworked from their original composition. Often they don't contain any biological remains at all.
Ancestor of All Life on Earth May Have Evolved Much Earlier Than Thought
Science may have enabled us to travel in space and trace the history of the entire universe, but it has not yet been able to answer exactly how and when life first arose on our planet. Traditionally, scientists have used the fossil record to try to answer these questions. Yet, as palaeontologists are all too aware, fossils are increasingly hard to find as we move backwards in time. In fact, we don’t have a lot of rock available to study that is older than two and a half billion years.
Ancestor of all life on Earth evolved earlier than we thought, according to our new timescale
Science may have enabled us to travel in space and trace the history of the entire universe, but it has not yet been able to answer exactly how and when life first arose on our planet. Traditionally, scientists have used the fossil record to try to answer these questions. Yet, as palaeontologists are all too aware, fossils are increasingly hard to find as we move backwards in time. In fact, we don’t have a lot of rock available to study that is older than two and a half billion years.
Integrated genomic and fossil evidence illuminates life’s early evolution and eukaryote origin
Establishing a unified timescale for the early evolution of Earth and life is challenging and mired in controversy because of the paucity of fossil evidence, the difficulty of interpreting it and dispute over the deepest branching relationships in the tree of life. Surprisingly, it remains perhaps the only episode in the history of life where literal interpretations of the fossil record hold sway, revised with every new discovery and reinterpretation.
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