Editing Biosphere (section)

=== Age ===
[[File:Stromatolithe Paléoarchéen - MNHT.PAL.2009.10.1.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Stromatolite fossil estimated at 3.2–3.6 billion years old]]
The [[Earliest known life forms|earliest evidence]] for life on Earth includes [[Biogenic substance|biogenic]] [[graphite]] found in 3.7&nbsp;billion-year-old [[metasediment]]ary rocks from [[Western Greenland]]<ref name="NG-20131208">{{cite journal|title=Evidence for biogenic graphite in early Archaean Isua metasedimentary rocks|journal=[[Nature Geoscience]]|doi=10.1038/ngeo2025|date=8 December 2013|volume=7|issue=1|pages=25–28|bibcode=2014NatGe...7...25O|last1=Ohtomo|first1=Yoko|last2=Kakegawa|first2=Takeshi|last3=Ishida|first3=Akizumi|last4=Nagase|first4=Toshiro|last5=Rosing|first5=Minik T.}}</ref> and [[microbial mat]] [[fossils]] found in 3.48&nbsp;billion-year-old [[sandstone]] from [[Western Australia]].<ref name="AP-20131113">{{cite news|last=Borenstein|first=Seth|title=Oldest fossil found: Meet your microbial mom|url=http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131113/DAA1VSC01.html|date=13 November 2013|agency=Associated Press|access-date=15 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629230719/http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131113/DAA1VSC01.html|archive-date=29 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AST-20131108">{{cite journal|last1=Noffke|first1=Nora|author1-link=Nora Noffke|last2=Christian|first2=Daniel|last3=Wacey|first3=David|last4=Hazen|first4=Robert M.|title=Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures Recording an Ancient Ecosystem in the ca. 3.48 Billion-Year-Old Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia|date=8 November 2013|journal=[[Astrobiology (journal)|Astrobiology]]|doi=10.1089/ast.2013.1030|pmid=24205812|pmc=3870916|volume=13|issue=12|pages=1103–24|bibcode=2013AsBio..13.1103N}}</ref> More recently, in 2015, "remains of [[Biotic material|biotic life]]" were found in 4.1&nbsp;billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia.<ref name="AP-20151019">{{cite news|last=Borenstein|first=Seth|title=Hints of life on what was thought to be desolate early Earth|url=http://apnews.excite.com/article/20151019/us-sci--earliest_life-a400435d0d.html|date=19 October 2015|work=[[Excite (web portal)|Excite]]|location=Yonkers, NY|publisher=[[Mindspark Interactive Network]]|agency=Associated Press|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001171406/http://apnews.excite.com/article/20151019/us-sci--earliest_life-a400435d0d.html|archive-date=1 October 2018|access-date=8 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="PNAS-20151014-pdf">{{cite journal|last1=Bell|first1=Elizabeth A.|last2=Boehnike|first2=Patrick|last3=Harrison|first3=T. Mark|last4=Mao|first4=Wendy L.|display-authors=3|date=19 October 2015|title=Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|doi=10.1073/pnas.1517557112|pmid=26483481|pmc=4664351|volume=112|issue=47|pages=14518–21|bibcode=2015PNAS..11214518B|doi-access=free}} Early edition, published online before print.</ref> In 2017, putative fossilized [[microorganism]]s (or [[Micropaleontology#Microfossils|microfossils]]) were announced to have been discovered in [[hydrothermal vent]] precipitates in the [[Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt|Nuvvuagittuq Belt]] of Quebec, Canada that were as old as 4.28&nbsp;billion years, the oldest record of life on earth, suggesting "an almost instantaneous emergence of life" after [[Origin of water on Earth#History of water on Earth|ocean formation 4.4 billion years ago]], and not long after the [[Age of the Earth|formation of the Earth]] 4.54&nbsp;billion years ago.<ref name="NAT-20170301">{{cite journal|author=Dodd, Matthew S.|author2=Papineau, Dominic|author3=Grenne, Tor|author4=Slack, John F.|author5=Rittner, Martin|author6=Pirajno, Franco|author7=O'Neil, Jonathan|author8=Little, Crispin T. S.|title=Evidence for early life in Earth's oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates|journal=Nature|volume=343|issue=7643|pages=60–64|date=2 March 2017|doi=10.1038/nature21377|pmid=28252057|bibcode=2017Natur.543...60D|s2cid=2420384|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/112179/1/ppnature21377_Dodd_for%20Symplectic.pdf|access-date=19 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723232142/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/112179/1/ppnature21377_Dodd_for%20Symplectic.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2018|url-status=live|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20170301">{{cite news|last=Zimmer|first=Carl|author-link=Carl Zimmer|title=Scientists Say Canadian Bacteria Fossils May Be Earth's Oldest|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/science/earths-oldest-bacteria-fossils.html|date=1 March 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302042424/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/science/earths-oldest-bacteria-fossils.html|archive-date=2 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BBC-20170301">{{cite web|last=Ghosh|first=Pallab|title=Earliest evidence of life on Earth 'found|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39117523|publisher=BBC News|date=1 March 2017|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302002134/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39117523|archive-date=2 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="4.3b oldest">{{cite news|last1=Dunham|first1=Will|title=Canadian bacteria-like fossils called oldest evidence of life|url=http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN16858B?sp=true|date=1 March 2017|work=Reuters|access-date=1 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302114728/http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN16858B?sp=true|archive-date=2 March 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to biologist [[Stephen Blair Hedges]], "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the [[universe]]."<ref name="AP-20151019" />