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Science 30 April 1993:
Vol. 260. no. 5108, pp. 640 - 646
DOI: 10.1126/science.260.5108.640
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Articles

Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex Chert: New Evidence of the Antiquity of Life

J. William Schopf 1

1 Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and the Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Eleven taxa (including eight heretofore undescribed species) of cellularly preserved filamentous microbes, among the oldest fossils known, have been discovered in a bedded chert unit of the Early Archean Apex Basalt of northwestern Western Australia. This prokaryotic assemblage establishes that trichomic cyanobacterium-like microorganisms were extant and morphologically diverse at least as early as sim3465 million years ago and suggests that oxygen-producing photoautotrophy may have already evolved by this early stage in biotic history.

Submitted on December 17, 1992
Accepted on March 12, 1993


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