Little and his colleagues found that the haematite filaments display similar characteristic branching of iron-oxidising bacteria found near other hydrothermal vents today. Their studies also suggest that the haematite were most likely formed when bacteria that oxidised iron for energy were fossilised in rock. "This discovery supports the idea that life emerged on from hot seafloor vents," he said in a release. The scientists say these microbes themselves would have been preceded by even earlier life forms. "All we can say is that life must have originated even earlier - whether 10 million years earlier or 100 million years earlier, we do not know," Little said.

Source: The Telegraph March 01, 2017 21:33 UTC