{"id":249187,"date":"2024-07-30T11:13:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T11:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/30\/oldest-rocks-on-earth-may-contain-strange-and-ancient-life-forms\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:13:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:13:37","slug":"oldest-rocks-on-earth-may-contain-strange-and-ancient-life-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/30\/oldest-rocks-on-earth-may-contain-strange-and-ancient-life-forms\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest rocks on Earth may contain strange and ancient life forms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"ArticleImage\">\n<div class=\"Image__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1288px) 837px, (min-width: 1024px) calc(57.5vw + 55px), (min-width: 415px) calc(100vw - 40px), calc(70vw + 74px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=837 837w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=900 900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1003 1003w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1100 1100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1300 1300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1400 1400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1500 1500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1600 1600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1674 1674w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1700 1700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1800 1800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=1900 1900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/29171440\/SEI_214786609.jpg?width=2006 2006w\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-image-context=\"Article\" data-image-id=\"2441917\" data-caption=\"Unusual cells without walls can create structures (main image) that resemble those found in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks from Buck Reef, South Africa (inset)\" data-credit=\"Dheeraj Kanaparthi et al. (2024); Tice et al., (2009)\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">Unusual cells without walls can create structures (main image) that resemble those found in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks from Buck Reef, South Africa (inset)<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">Dheeraj Kanaparthi et al. (2024); Tice et al., (2009)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The oldest rocks on Earth contain mysterious fossils of cells that appear to be unlike anything alive today, leaving biologists puzzled as to how they evolved. Now, experiments have shown that these fossils could be of primitive cells that lacked the ability to fully control their shape, making them a precursor to the modern cells we see today.<\/p>\n<p>Sedimentary rocks that formed up to 3.8 billion years ago \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2439385-last-common-ancestor-of-all-life-emerged-far-earlier-than-thought\/\">not\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2441736-oldest-rocks-on-earth-may-contain-strange-and-ancient-life-forms\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Unusual cells without walls can create structures (main image) that resemble those found in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks from Buck Reef, South Africa (inset) Dheeraj Kanaparthi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}