Complex life on Earth started 1.5 billion years earlier than thought.
Life on Earth started earlier than thought
Scientists had broadly concurred that animals first emerged on our planet 635 million years ago but a new study has found signs of a much older ecosystem in the Franceville Basin near Gabon.
The research has uncovered environmental evidence of the first experiments in the evolution of complex life and describes unique underwater volcanic activity after a collision between two continents.
However, the life forms did not become present across the globe at the time due to restricted water mass and hostile conditions that existed for billions of years afterwards.
Dr. Ernest Chi Fru, lead author of the research at Cardiff University, said: "We already know that increases in marine phosphorous and seawater oxygen concentrations are linked to an episode of biological evolution around 635 million years ago.
"Our study adds another, much earlier episode into the record, 2.1 billion years ago."