Origins of life: The rubber gloves come off in scientist free-for-all about the origins of photosynthesis

Darkfrog submitted, created time 2 months 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

About 2.4 billion years ago, Earth's oxygen levels rose sharply, in what has turned out to be a prerequisite for almost every form of life (I am assuming that aquatic oxygen levels rose as well). This is one of the reasons why scientists studying early life and the origins of life have always considered the 2.4 billion mark to coincide with the emergence of photosynthetic organisms.

However, geologists in Australia have unearthed some shale that shows markings from hydrocarbons that "could only have been put there by photosynthetic organisms." Their date stamp? 2.7 billion years. ..

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