Optical microscope image of the filamentous microfossils.
B. Cavalazzi
A team of international researchers has discovered the fossilized remains of methane-feeding microbes that lived in a hydrothermal system beneath the seafloor 3.42 billion years ago.
The microfossils are the oldest evidence for this type of life and expand the frontiers of potentially habitable environments on the early Earth, as well as other planets such as Mars.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, analyzed microfossil specimens in two thin layers within a rock collected from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. This region, near the border with Eswatini and Mozambique, contains some of the oldest and best-preserved sedimentary rocks found on our planet.
The outcrop from which the rock sample was taken in the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa.
Cavalazzi et al. 2021/Science Advances
The microfossils have a…