The origins of life on Earth have long fascinated scientists, particularly the nature of the last universal common ancestor ...

The paper shows how Earth's earliest life forms—microbes such as O 2-producing bacteria and methane-producing archaea—shaped, and were shaped by, changes in the oceans, continents, and atmosphere.

Although these new life-forms spread worldwide ... The Mistaken Point fossils, going back 570 million years, are the earliest evidence on Earth of large, biologically complex beings.

A new study suggests that the explosive deaths of the universe's earliest stars created surprising quantities of water that ...

In a new peer reviewed analysis, scientists quantify amino acids before and after our “last universal common ancestor.” The ...

If liquid water and elevated crust existed so early in Earth’s history, was life present as well? There is carbon isotope evidence for life in the world’s oldest known volcanic-sedimentary ...

Subsequent studies continue to debate the belt's exact age. Some researchers have also suggested the belt contains evidence of Earth's earliest life — traces of bacteria dating to between 4.3 billion ...

In the orange layers, the rock dried out too quickly for the microscopic algae — also known as cyanobacteria, the earliest known form of life on Earth — to grow, according to the DBCA.

The earliest humans emerged about 300,000 years ago. While many of Earth’s earliest life forms have long since gone extinct, some animals have stood the test of time–surviving through mass ...

It records a critical milestone in Earth's history, when the atmosphere was changing rapidly and atmospheric oxygen was increasing - a key indication that primitive life on Earth was blooming ...

Why it's incredible: The rock formations contain traces of the earliest life-forms on Earth. The Bungle Bungles are a collection of sandstone towers with distinctive orange and dark-gray stripes ...