Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 434, 155 (10 March 2005) | doi:10.1038/434155a; Published online 9 March 2005
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Direct Molecular Detection of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to protein and nucleic acid detection. This is an Id...
-
Methods of Modeling Adaptation in Populations
The analysis of adaptation with a population is a frequently encountered computational modeling scen...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Senior Faculty Positions
- Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies
- Port St. Lucie, FL
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
- Northwestern University
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
Palaeobiology: Dating earliest life
Stephen Moorbath1
Abstract
Claims that 3.8-billion-year-old rocks from Greenland contain carbonaceous remnants of very early life have been the subject of argument for several years. The latest analyses look like settling matters.
How, where and when did life start? Geologists are helping to address these questions by diligently searching the oldest-known sedimentary rocks on Earth for traces of primitive life, either in the form of cellular microfossils, or as chemical and isotopic tracers characteristic of biological processes.
- Stephen Moorbath is in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK.
e-mail: Email: stephenm@earth.ox.ac.uk
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Cosmochemistry and the origin of lifeNature News and Views (20 Aug 1981)
Precambrian geology: The most ancient rocks revisitedNature News and Views (19 Jun 1986)
See all 6 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
Reassessing the evidence for the earliest traces of lifeNature Letters to Editor (08 Aug 2002)
Origin of life from apatite dating?Nature Scientific Correspondence (08 Jul 1999)
See all 4 matches for Research