News Paleontology

3.42-billion-year-old fossil threads may be the oldest known archaea microbes

The structure and chemistry of the filaments hints that they may be ancient cells

microscope image of archaea

If the real deal, fossils of methane-producing archaea (shown, in a cluster at center and as individual threads nearby) would be the earliest found by far, predating specimens from less than 500 million years ago.

B. Cavalazzi

By Carolyn Wilke

- More than 2 years ago

Threadlike filaments pressed in rock may be the remnants of archaea that burped methane near hydrothermal vents 3.42