Talk:Earliest known life forms

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Info in Biosphere Section

I'm wondering if the "Biospheres section" needs the first and third paragraph. Why would the reader need to know about the number of living cells or amount of species on Earth to understand the earliest evidences of life? HaskelleTW (talk) 20:48, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

They might be relevant to "life on earth" but they're indeed not a lot to do with earliest evidence. I'll cut them now. Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:51, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

HaskelleTW: And the surviving (formerly 2nd) paragraph goes into a mass of recent dates about breathlessly exciting discoveries ... about life on earth now, which also doesn't have much to do with earliest life forms. I suppose there's some slight benefit from a context about the age of the earth and origin of life, but the recent stuff, what's that for? Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:56, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think that paragraph is okay because it talks about the variety of geological environments where you might possibly find evidence of life. I added a sentence about this towards the beginning to make that point clearer, but if needed we can workshop this paragraph more. HaskelleTW (talk) 22:16, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Newly found area on Earth similar to ancient times?

@Chiswick Chap: (and others) - In December 2023, scientists, for the first time, reported a recently discovered area on the current planet Earth, particularly in the Puna de Atacama territory of South America, which may be similar to ancient Earth, and the related environment of the first life forms on Earth - as well as - similar to possibly hospitable conditions on the planet Mars during earlier Martian times.^[1] - iac - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 23:43, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Strain, Daniel (6 December 2023). "Deep within an inhospitable desert, a window to first life on Earth". Colorado University. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.

Drbogdan (talk) 23:21, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Well, we already have a detailed section on Stromatolites here, and ancient ones at that, which are clearly more relevant to this article's topic, so the recent discovery (in two senses) has not much bearing on this article. It might be worth adding to the Stromatolite article, however. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:42, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Done @Chiswick Chap: - Yes - Thank You for your comments - and suggested edit add to the Stromatolite article - now done - Thanks again - and - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 14:55, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Earliest fossil?

The article describes the earliest fossil as "The earliest direct known life on land may be stromatolites which have been found in 3.480-billion-year-old geyserite uncovered in the Dresser Formation of the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia." Being picky, stromatolites live in the sea or lakes, and 'may' is weasly, so I've changed the sentence to read "The earliest direct known life on Earth are stromatolite fossils ..."

But what happened with the controversy over the discovery of 3.700 billion year old stromatolites in southwest Greenland, beating this 3.480 billion year old fossil by 220 million years? "Nature (2016): Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures" "UNSW newsroom: Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures" Aarghdvaark (talk) 02:28, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[CU-20231206-1] Strain, Daniel (6 December 2023). "Deep within an inhospitable desert, a window to first life on Earth". Colorado University. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.

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