Oldest Fossils on Earth Suggest Possibility of Life On Mars

 

The microscopic fossils are the remains of the oldest known lifeforms on earth. They were found near an isolated watering hole in the middle of the Outback, and scientists say that they belonged to primitive bacteria that lived on earth at a time when it was probably too hostile for life.
Thus, scientists argue that the primitive microbes used sulfur instead of oxygen to generate energy from food.
If this is true, the findings support the idea that similar life forms could exist on other planets where oxygen levels are low or non-existent.
Martin Brasier of Oxford University worked on the team that made the discovery. He argues:
"Could these sorts of things exist on Mars? It's just about conceivable. This evidence is certainly encouraging and lack of oxygen on Mars is not a problem,"

In the study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience, Brasier's team explained that the tiny fossils were discovered in rocks that were originally formed in shallow seas near the coast. They were preserved between the quartz and sand grains in some of the oldest shoreline known on earth in some of the oldest sedimentary rock ever discovered.
This suggests that beaches were likely the key habitat where the earth's first lifeforms thrived.
David Wacey, of the University of Western Australia, told the Independent:
"The environment in which the microfossils were found is important - it extends the record of life in shoreline or beach-like environments by about 200 million years. This suggests that beaches could have been the setting for the origin of life itself."