These former living things can be preserved in rock or soil or a mixture of soil etc. A claim by two researchers that the Oldest fossils ever found show life on Earth began before 3.5 billion years ago.
A sample of rock was taken from the Apex Chert, a rock formation in western Australia that is believed to be among the oldest and best-preserved rock deposits in the world. This study, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was led by J. William Schopf, a professor of paleobiology at the university of UCLA, and John W. Valley, professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This study didn’t show the organisms were complete micro fossil, but had the characteristics of, and thought to be biological. But Schopf’s earlier interpretations have been disputed. Critics argued they are just odd minerals that only look like biological specimens.
Life on Earth beginning 3.5 billion years ago is stretching it probably a little to far. But fossils have been found dating way back before the dinosaurs, 100 plus million years ago. Jurassic the second period and Cretaceous the third period of the Mesozoic era we find that dinosaurs, roamed the land.
Science uses radiocarbon dating to determine distance ages, something about how radioactive decay works. I can put my hands around 5,000 years ago, 10,000 is stressing it some, 1 million, hmm, 100 million years? A millions years is a puzzling question, that’s an immense amount of time.
Now let’s move into fossils found that had the skeletons of real animals. Fossils have been found for instance that show Fossilized animals in different stages, depicting the development of the horse for example.
Fossils of dinosaurs are abundant, even found in America. Their fossilized skeletons have been excavated, put together and displayed in museums.
Tyrannosaurus Rex was a giant flesh eating dinosaur that lived 68-million years ago. Wow 68-million years ago seems incredible. The Hell Creek Formation in Montana has found fossils of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. There were battles that probably occurred between Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops in those unbelievable ancient years ago.
Dinosaur eggs have been found in the Hamipterus tianshanensis in China’s Gobi Desert. A discovery of more than 200 fossilized eggs were found there. It is the largest pterosaur egg collection ever found. The pterosaur could fly, and its weight was held down with hollow bones.
The China’s Gobi Desert was a land that could promote life in prehistoric times, remains of fossilized dinosaurs have been found there. What we find fascinating about fossils is that life existed far back in ancient time, so far, and earth reflects that to us, here in the present.
Fossils are a deep study, with so much time spent on the subject, it continues today and will go on in the future.