Oldest evidence of life on land found in 3.48-billion-year-old Australian rocks
▻https://phys.org/news/2017-05-oldest-evidence-life-billion-year-old-australian.html
Previously, the world’s oldest evidence for microbial life on land came from 2.7- 2.9 billion year old deposits in South Africa containing organic matter-rich ancient soils.
“Our exciting findings don’t just extend back the record of life living in hot springs by 3 billion years, they indicate that life was inhabiting the land much earlier than previously thought, by up to about 580 million years,” says study first author, UNSW PhD candidate, Tara Djokic.