New Fossils Support Deep-Sea Origin Of Life

Geologists have discovered 1.43 billion-year-old fossils of deep-sea microbes, providing more evidence that life may have originated on the bottom of the ocean. The ancient black smoker chimneys, which scientists unearthed in a Chinese mine, are 1 billion years older than similar fossils previously identified and are nearly identical to the archaea- and bacteria-harboring structures found today on sea beds. "These are remnants of the oldest living types of life forms on the planet," said Timothy Kusky, a geologist at Saint Louis University and co-author of a new study that describes the fossils...