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Cyanobacteria are probably the most numerous taxon to have ever existed on Earth and the first organisms known to have produced oxygen, [10] having appeared in the middle Archean eon and apparently originated in a freshwater or terrestrial environment. [11]
Bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms that can either have a bacilli, spirilli, or cocci shape and measure between 0.5-20 micrometers. They were one of the first living cells to evolve [9] and have spread to inhabit a variety of different habitats including hydrothermal vents, glacial rocks, and other organisms.
Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of the first forms of life on Earth. [24] They peaked about 1.25 billion years ago (Ga) [22] and subsequently declined in abundance and diversity, [25] so that by the start of the Cambrian they had fallen to 20% of their peak.
The age of Earth is about 4.54 billion years; [7] [33] [34] the earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates from at least 3.5 billion years ago according to the stromatolite record. [35] Some computer models suggest life began as early as 4.5 billion years ago. [36] [37] The oldest evidence of life is indirect in the form of isotopic ...
The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes: 3.8 billion-year-old biogenic hematite in a banded iron formation of the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in Canada; [30] graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in western Greenland; [31] and microbial mat fossils in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia.
Earth forms 3.4 billion years ago First photosynthetic bacteria appear 2.7 billion years ago Cyanobacteria become the first oxygen producers 2.4 – 2.3 billion years ago Earliest evidence (from rocks) that oxygen was in the atmosphere 1.2 billion years ago Red and brown algae become structurally more complex than bacteria 0.75 billion years ago
All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A new study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation.
Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. The earliest identifiable fossils consist of stromatolites, which are microbial mats formed in shallow water by cyanobacteria. The earliest stromatolites are found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia.