Fossil discoveries

Researchers in Gabon are studying fossils containing signs of life dating back two billion years. To the un-trained eye, they are just stones. But for researchers from all over the world, it is a fabulous treasure trove.

Said Abderrazak El Albani a geologist from the University of Poitiers: “We took a sample or two, then back in France we went to a specialist and he told us, “Ok, you’re working on fossils that are 600 million years old!” so from then I knew we were onto something.”

These 600 million year-old fossils were excavated from earth which dated from 2 billion years ago. So scientists did further tests, using a three-dimensional scanner. There could be no further doubt; this find threw the chronology of the entire planet into question. If we say that the first single cell organisms appeared 3 billion years ago, the complex forms of life that we knew about up until now dated from 600 million years ago. But the Gabon fossils push back the date of the appearance of multicellular life. It’s a fundamental discovery for researchers and now they want to protect the site in Franceville, Gabon, because it could be the place where life on earth began.