Ancient Life Rewrites Earth‘s History: Photosynthesis Detected in 3.3 Billion-Year-Old Rocks
WASHINGTON D.C. - Scientists have discovered the oldest direct evidence of photosynthetic life on Earth, pushing back the timeline by nearly a billion years. Researchers identified chemical signatures indicative of ancient photosynthetic organisms in rocks dating back 3.3 billion years, and further evidence in 2.5 billion year old material.Previously, the oldest reliably identified photosynthetic life was dated to 1.7 billion years ago.
The breakthrough, led by Dr. Robert Hazen and Dr. katie maloney, utilized machine learning algorithms to analyze the subtle chemical composition of rocks. These algorithms, trained to differentiate biological signals from those of modern life and meteorites, achieved a 90% accuracy rate.
“Ancient life left behind more then fossils; it left behind chemical echoes,” explained Dr. Hazen. Dr. Maloney added that the technique allows scientists to “reading the fossil record of deep time in a new way” and could inform the search for life on other planets.
The findings may also provide new insights into The Great Oxygenation Event, the period approximately 2.4 billion years ago when Earth’s atmosphere began accumulating oxygen. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
