All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
4 09, 2016

3.7-Billion-Year-Old Microbial Structures?

By | September 4th, 2016|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

A Rapid Emergence of Life on Earth?

When did life on Earth begin?  That is a very difficult question to answer, however, a team of scientists have published in the journal “Nature” this week suggesting that stromatolites (microbial colonies) existed in shallow marine environments as early as 3.7 billion years ago.  It’s all to do with waves and squiggles preserved in sedimentary strata from south-western Greenland.

Stromatolite Microbial Structures

Do These Wavy Lines and Structures Preserved in Ancient Sedimentary Rocks Indicate the Presence of Colonial Bacteria?

Are these wavy lines stromatolite fossils?

Evidence for ancient stromatolites?

Picture credit: University of Wollongong

In the picture above the white scale bar represents 4 centimetres.

Although the paper is not without its controversy, if these waves and squiggles do turn out to be the ancient signatures left by mats of bacteria, then they would predate the previously oldest known fossils (from Australia) by some 200 million years or more.  Such claims are hotly contested, about as hot as the young Earth when the researchers (from a number of Australian institutions as well as from the UK), claim these stromatolites first existed.

The Isua Supercrustal Belt

The bleak, desolate uplands of south-western Greenland hold a secret.  The rocks here are the oldest surviving piece of the Earth’s surface.  As our planet continues to warm, so ice sheets shrink and slowly and surely, like the advance of geological time itself, new parts of our planet’s ancient crust are exposed.

This geological feature is called the Isua Supercrustal Belt (ISB).  Professor Martin van Kranendonk (University of New South Wales), specialises in the study of ancient life forms, dedicating his career to examining rocks for traces of Archean and Proterozoic life.  He and his colleagues hypothesise that the waves and cones seen in the ancient Greenland rocks are the traces of stromatolite stacks.

Researchers Exploring the ISB of Greenland

The Isua Supracrustal Belt of Greenland

The bleak and deserted part of south-western Greenland – on the hunt for ancient fossils.

Picture credit: Picasa

Ancient Rocks and Ancient Fossils

Professor Kranendonk commented:

“We see the original unaltered sedimentary layers, and we can see how the stromatolite structures grow up through the sedimentary layering.  And we can see the characteristic dome and cone-shaped forms of modern stromatolites.”

If this is evidence of microbial colonies preserved in rocks some 3,700 million years old, then they predate by some 220 million years the previous most convincing and generally accepted evidence for the oldest life on Earth, the stromatolite fossils from the 3,480 million year old Dresser Formation of the Pilbara Craton, Australia.  These ancient rocks located in Western Australia are mostly volcanic in origin but the strata also preserves evidence of hydrothermal locations (hot springs), indicated by the presence of large quantities of the mineral barite.

These areas are associated with wrinkled structures, columns and cone shaped rocks, interpreted as evidence of stromatolite structures having existed within the hot springs and surrounding areas.

Ancient Stromatolites

The ISB fossil material indicates the establishment of shallow marine carbonate production with biotic CO2 sequestration by 3,700 million years ago, close to the start of our planet’s sedimentary record.  If this is the case, then genetic molecular clock studies would push back the origin of life to before the Archaen Eon and into the Hadean Eon.

The Hadean Eon is the very oldest part of the Earth’s geological record.  It covers the period from our planet’s formation some 4.57 billion years ago to around 4 billion years ago (the start of the Archean Eon).  This suggests that life began on our planet when it was still being bombarded by extraterrestrial bodies, remnants from the formation of our solar system (the “Great Cometary Bombardment”).

For models and replicas of ancient prehistoric creatures: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

Shark Bay Western Australia

Stromatolites can still be found today in various parts of the world (freshwater and marine environments).  For example, they can still be seen around the coast of Western Australia in a very saline body of water called Shark Bay.  The mushroom shaped structures found on the floor of the bay are the work of cyanobacterial communities.  Layers of mineral grains are glued together by the sticky, colonial bacteria.

To read an article from Everything Dinosaur published in 2010 about fossil evidence for the earliest animals found: Sponge-like Fossils May Be Earliest Animals.

4 09, 2016

Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

By | September 4th, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

Providing Dinosaur Themed Resources for Schools

After having supplied some prehistoric animal models and fact sheets to a teacher who was developing a scheme of work with a number of classes at her school, we received this kind email thanking us for our contribution.

Dinosaur Themed Teaching Resources

The teacher wrote:

“Thank you so much for the information.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  We are working on an outreach project for a local school (grades 4-6).  The prehistoric animal models are part of a school assignment on adaptation which includes extinction of species.  I hope to have the students get excited about science in general and plan to use the materials in lots of activities.  The information sheets you provided will help them learn about the prehistoric animals that they make models of.  It should be a fun day!”

Everything Dinosaur Supplies a Range of Prehistoric Animal Models and Other Resources for use in Schools

Everything Dinosaur receives a large shipment of CollectA prehistoric animal figures.

Lots of different prehistoric animal figures available from Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view this model range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

Everything Dinosaur’s Resources

The picture above shows a set of prehistoric animal models supplied to schools by Everything Dinosaur.  Each model is supplied with a fact sheet.  Each fact sheet is research and written by Everything Dinosaur team members and regularly updated in the light of new fossil discoveries and scientific evidence.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

We shall leave the last word to the teacher.  As we had supplied the fact sheets late on Friday (in response to her email which arrived about thirty minutes earlier), the teacher was most impressed with our speedy response and rapid customer service.  The teacher concluded her email by saying:

“Thank you ever so much and have a great weekend!”

Here’s one teacher who has got her lesson planning sorted in double quick time.

To contact Everything Dinosaur: Send Everything Dinosaur an Email.

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