Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/20/the-earths-oldest-existing-lifeforms.html
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Fascinating things - got a deep affection for them during my postgraduate degree when I was researching Banded Iron Formations. Basically without these bugs we wouldn’t have the colossal iron ore reserves that make the modern world possible.
Oh and no oxygen.
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I really would love to get one of these Australian stromatolites sliced samples. It would be so cool to have something so old and remnants of life.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story Stone Mattress, the main character uses a stromatolite as a murder weapon…
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As cool as it is that similar organisms are still around (not the same - no way there hasn’t been a huge amount of genetic change in billions of years even if they look exactly the same to us), what’s more amazing to me is that every single living thing on Earth, including us, is part of a lineage that dates back just as far. Like, the egg and sperm that made you were among the infinitesimal fraction of cells in a lineage that won the battle for survival and reproduction in each generation for billions of years. Every. Single. Time.
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You might want to get in quick on that!
Our governing bodies are very much beholden to mining companies like Rio Tinto that just blew up a site with a 46,000 year connection to the local aboriginals containing many artifacts as well as a spiritual connection.
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Yes, all “living fossils” are still distinct from their ancestors, even if they largely look the same.
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