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Nature 417, 782-784 (20 June 2002) | doi:10.1038/417782a
Microfossils: Squaring up over ancient life
Rex Dalton1
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Abstract
The textbooks say that oxygen-producing microorganisms evolved some 3.5 billion years ago. But as that claim and its author come under attack, the history of life on Earth may have to be rewritten. Rex Dalton investigates.
It was the academic equivalent of a heavyweight prizefight. In the red corner, defending his title as discoverer of the Earth's oldest fossils, was Bill Schopf of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
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