Old Hands Making New Discoveries
Old Hands Making New Discoveries
We make a thing on this website celebrating old age. Well we need to since the combined age of our three directors is over 200 years. We are positively juvenile though compared with what is thought to be the age when eukaryotic life first appeared on earth. Michael Marshall reports in a recent edition of the International New Scientist (22 Feb 2020. Page 8) that rocks found in the Wutai mountains of China were laid down 2.15 to 1.95 billion years ago. Researchers have found two microfossils which appear to be eukaryotes (Dictyosphaera) and six specimens of a new genus they called Dongyesphaera. Precambrian research, doi.org/dmsf.
All this leads us to ponder the age when thraustochytrids first appeared on the planet. We found a good reference which I think gives a good estimate of the Stramenopiles diverging at about 1000Ma (a billion years ago), with a major radiation at 700Ma. (Eukaryotic Microbes. 2011. Ed. Moselio Schaechter. (eBook ISBN: 9780123838773)
What other micro-organisms were slithering around the landscape then? And are there more genera out there? That’s the beauty of Science. You’re never too old to be amazed by the discoveries unlocking the origin of our past.
I found an interesting contribution on YouTube called What did earth look like 2 billion years ago? by Dreksler Astral. You may be interested in it.