Geology

Geology
The 366 daily episodes in 2014 were chronological snapshots of earth history, beginning with the Precambrian in January and on to the Cenozoic in December. You can find them all in the index in the right sidebar. In 2015, the daily episodes for each month were assembled into monthly packages (link in index at right), and a few new episodes were posted from 2015-18. You may be interested in a continuation of this blog on Substack at this location. Thanks for your interest!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

January 5: Oldest fossils

By Richard I. Gibson

The search for the oldest fossil is a moving target. In 2011, as we discuss in this podcast, the oldest microfossils were thought to be bacteria dating to about 3.4 billion years ago (see this link).  UPDATE: In November 2013, fossils from the same area of Western Australia were identified and dated to about 3.5 billion years (see this report).

Even if both ages are correct, it's likely that the age of the "oldest fossil" will continue to change with new discoveries and new analysis.

Photo Credit: David Wacey, via Australian Geographic.

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