Filamentous fossil bacteria from the Archean of Western Australia

Abstract Four morphotypes of structurally preserved, filamentous fossil bacteria have been discovered in petrographic thin sections of laminated, carbonaceous cherts from the ∼3500 Ma-old Warrawoona Group of northwestern Australia. These tubular and septate microfossils are interpreted here as being syngenetic with Warrawoona sedimentation; as such, they are apparently the oldest such fossils now known in the geological record. The diversity of this assemblage, and the evident complexity of its individual components, suggest that the beginnings of life on Earth may have appreciably pre-dated the deposition of the Warrawoona sediments.

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