featured-image

A small black rock souvenired by a student during an outback study trip in has been cracked open to reveal the remains of 2.4-billion-year-old creatures inside. What’s remarkable about these microfossils is they appear to be more intricate than anything known to exist at the time.

Not just by a few years, but by 750 million. They appear to belong to — a domain that includes animals, plants and fungi. It had previously been thought all that existed was single-celled bacteria-like life called prokaryotes.



While the texture of the fossils is extremely good, the chemical information has been degraded and that makes proving the hypothesis difficult. But given the random series of events that led to the find, the researchers are committed to keep studying this mysterious find. The layered limestone rock, known as a black chert, was found by in the and taken home as a keepsake.

She’d been pursuing a different line of research as a student at University of NSW before her supervisor Professor Martin Van Kranendonk spotted it on her desk. “The particular type of rock that Erica had on her desk is well known to contain samples of microfossils,” Van Kranendonk told Yahoo News. “I'd seen some of those types of rocks, but this particular sample looked extraordinarily glassy.

” Although the pair were studying in a geology lab, the chances of anyone knowing the significance of the black chert were low. Maybe a couple of dozen people throughout the world would recognise it. The o.

Back to Beauty Page