Lamia Abou El Khair

How did the first spark of life on our blue planet, and how did it build those lives? We can say that it is a puzzling question that contributes to the answer of geologists and microbiologists over the next few years.

Examination of sedimentary rocks
Researchers of life sciences and geology began to conduct the necessary studies to form the broader picture of what had been endemic to the planet millions of years ago, and to provide empirical evidence in support of what these scientists had developed.


A researcher in astronomical biosciences at the University of New South Wallace in Australia, Raffel Pomegranter and his colleagues take an unusual approach to the issue. - up to the buried layers of the outer surface of the earth, which still retains its constituents away from the exposure of the first surface layers of erosion and stratification.


Stromatolite and pyrite
Researchers have discovered a small trace of fossil microbial clusters within the "stromatolite" - sedimentary rocks where the oldest microbes on Earth are stored - in the dry Balbra region of Northwestern Australia, one of the oldest areas rich in precious metals, especially iron.


Hence, scientists may be able to identify and identify the inhabitants of our planet, and how they helped shape the life framework of the rest of the animals, and "analysis of fossil bacteria data confirms - for the first time - the settlement of living organisms in the planet 3.5 billion years ago," says the principal researcher Pomegranter University website .


Using observational techniques such as scanning electron microscopy as well as quantitative analysis tools such as secondary ion nanoparticle spectrometry and X-ray energy scatter spectroscopy, the team was able to analyze the thin folds within the Earth's surface layers and inferred the presence of some nitrogen residue microbial organisms within a metal. Pyrite.


But what is pyrite? It is a mineral often known as gold fools, because of its approach in form and color real gold metal, often accompanying sulfide compounds and its presence with fossils, because it contains nanoforms within which these microbial communities reside.

Plebra region in northwestern Australia (NASA)

Other studies
Some former researchers claimed to have discovered fossils containing microbial populations on Canada's northeastern island of Greenland, but that claim was quickly abandoned. The sediments were even found to consist of ordinary ancient rocks that had endured many of the pressures that contributed to their reshaping.

This study may offer an alternative model to predict the possibility of similar fossils on the Red Planet (Mars), where another team working at the same university discovered signs of residues of organic sediment lying in the hot water springs of the Belbra region, which is about 3.48 billion years old, Similar to Mars in the presence of hot springs on its outer surface, and that the crust in the planet Earth and Mars is about the same age, there may be fossils containing bacterial clusters on Mars.