Theoretical origin of life: early living filament fossils (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, July 26, 2021, 19:54 (1216 days ago) @ David Turell

From 3.42 byo:

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/29/eabf3963?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2021-07...

More commentary:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-archaea-microbe-fossil-fillaments-life-evolu...

"...some researchers aren’t convinced these fossils are the real deal. In silica-rich hydrothermal environments, the ingredients for structures that mimic cells mingle and can form life look-alikes through chemistry, says Julie Cosmidis, a geobiologist at the University of Oxford. “They fossilize better than actual cells, so I think it could very well be what those things are,” she says, pointing out that nickel, common in the early Earth, clings easily to organic matter, whether it’s living or not. “We don’t understand enough [about] the processes that can create false biosignatures,” says Cosmidis, whose lab studies such questions.

"Cavalazzi and her colleagues contend that the different lines of evidence together support the living origin of the microfossils. Papineau also notes that “the evidence is very good,” but adds that it’s “not necessarily rock solid.” Other tests could strengthen the case for the earliest methane-using microbes, he says.

"If the strands are ancient archaea, they’d become the earliest fossil evidence for this domain of life, predating specimens from less than 500 million years ago. And if such microbes evolved so quickly on Earth, within around 1 billion years of the planet’s origin, methane-cyclers may be more common than realized on other planets where liquid water has been around for a while, Papineau says."

Comment: We'll wait for more studies.