Scientists may have just found one of the oldest life forms in graphite rocks in the Labrador Region of Canada, according to findings published Thursday.
The organic biogenic material, created by living organisms, was found in the region that dates back 3.95 billion years, Time magazine reported.
“[The discovery] suggests not only that there may have been life, but there may have been abundant enough life that you could get carbon-rich sediments,” said Beth Ann Bell, a geochemist at the University of California Los Angeles.
Prior to this discovery, the oldest known biogenic material found in graphite was located in Greenland and northern Quebec, and clocked in at roughly 3.7 to 3.8 billion years old, making this new discovery 150 million years older, CBC News reported.
“The discovery of the biogenic graphite enables geochemical study of the biogenic materials themselves, and will provide insight into early life not only on Earth but also on other planets,” the science journal Nature reported.
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