Life on Earth May Be 1.5 Billion Years Older Than We Thought

There are those who believe that all life forms somehow leave a visible mark on the planet. But some of these existential beacons may be so deep within our planet, or even so small, that even the most perfect excavations may have difficulty finding them.

And if we think Life begins in the oceans, close to volcanic vents, where difficulty increases and technological resources decrease.. But Virginia Tech’s research dared to push back the timeline of life.

According to research published in Science Magazine, life on our planet may have emerged during the Proterozoic Era, approximately 1.5 billion years ago. This is a significant difference considering that current research shows that life emerged only in the last 635 million Earth years.

We develop without rushing

If life arose billions of years ago, why do we have so little evidence that it evolved and diversified before the great glaciation? The Virginia Tech group led by researcher Shuhai Xiao has an explanation.

Life has not yet evolved as we know it. The first living things were simple “single” cells that gradually grouped and became more complex. The first eukaryotic creatures, that is, those with a cellular nucleus, emerged after a long evolutionary process and formed the first “cellular fossils”.

It is difficult to find traces of this still developing life. To reach the conclusion, published in the journal Science, the researchers meticulously analyzed sea rocks taken from the coast of Africa.

In addition to dating using radiometric methods to know when these sediments formed, the group also meticulously scanned the age of the fossils using mathematical models that help understand the equation. can have many variables and limitations.

The results pointed to the presence of cellular traces of life during the Proterozoic period, approximately 1.8 billion years ago. But these assets do not appear to have undergone major divergence or exponential growth..

It appears that they may have played a crucial role in the early cellular organizations that carried out photosynthesis and contributed to the “Great Oxygenation Event.” But they did not undergo major adaptations or structural changes. Because of this “lack” of change, researchers have dubbed this period the “Boring Billion”; loosely translated something like “boring billion”.

Major changes and variability in life appear to have been triggered by more violent events such as ice ages. The greatest evidence for the development of life is concentrated in 635 million years.

As is our wont these days, we rush to improve only when something serious happens.

Mysterious life on earth

Born in the sea or brought by meteorites, there is still no single theory that can reliably date and explain when this biological, physical, chemical and transformational event of the emergence of life on Earth occurred. Obviously, one theory does not necessarily rule out another, but there are always skeptics.

As far as we know, for this life-giving recipe to work, some important elements are needed, represented by the mnemonic CHONPS: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur.

Not all of these elements were abundant in the formation of the Earth; They formed after long millennia of changes caused by cooling of the planetary crust. Of course, for primitive life this was not a problem up to a certain point.

It is believed that some of the first life forms may have been anaerobic bacteria, which are still found today and do not require oxygen to fully function.

In this regard, Shuhai Xiao’s research will not find major limitations to accept, but the immutability of this evolutionary plateau is what has attracted the attention of more careful researchers regarding the development of this early in life.

Although the Virginia Tech team offered Relatively solid data on the emergence of life on Earth While a conceivable earlier event would drag the timeline another billion years, there is always a need for further study and verification on the subject.

Is life being retold?

In general terms, knowing how life on Earth began helps us search for other life forms outside our planet, because in the beginning, things were not as ideal as they are today.

With a very simple, even innocent example, it would be like comparing someone born in the prehistoric period, who ran away from wild animals and struggled fiercely to find food, with us who only demand ready meals. APPLICATION.

These are not changeable factors, because we cannot go back to the past to make the lives of the “cavemen” easier, and there is no need to retell this story. From this perspective, instead of retelling, we fill in the gaps left empty by the memory of life.

It’s impossible to know when this life-giving story will be completed. It may take another thousand years for each comma to come into place. However, among the many theories up to that point, we can choose the one that best explains the world and life in it for each of us. Which is your favorite theory?

If your curiosity has been piqued further, how about getting some perspective on how much life has or will still exist on our planet? I hope you have a year full of incredible discoveries with us! Stay tuned to TecMundo! Until later.