The oldest fossils ever found are "direct evidence" of life on Earth 3.8 to 4.3 billion years ago, researchers reported today in the journal Nature. The fact that life kick-started not long after Earth formed suggests it could also emerge on watery worlds outside our Solar System at comparable stages of formation, the scientists said. "We could expect to find evidence for past life on Mars four billion years ago," Dodd said. Known as the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt, the site of the discovery contains some of the oldest sedimentary rocks known on Earth. They formed between 3.77 and 4.29 billion years ago, and may have been the habitat for the planet's first life forms.

Source: dna March 01, 2017 18:11 UTC