They find traces of ancient bacteria-eating creatures.
new In the study Experts present a very special set of finds, a 1.6-billion-year-old lost world, he writes IFLScience. The fossil consists of fossilized fat from an entire community of previously unknown organisms. These organisms, more complex than bacteria, were present in large numbers in the seas and seriously affected the Earth’s ecosystem at that time.
We think that these may have been the first predators on Earth to catch and devour bacteria
– Tell Jochen Brooksfrom the Australian National University and a member of the team.
The members of the group of organisms that the researchers called protosterol organisms were very different from the current group of eukaryotes, which includes fungi, plants, protozoa, and animals. This is because oxygen levels were much lower during that era. The name protosterol refers to the fact that these ancient microorganisms produced protosterols.
Experts examined fossilized fats that formed about 1.6 billion years ago in what is now northern Australia. In these, they found chemical signals indicating that the molecules may have descended from the last common ancestor of eukaryotes — fungi, plants and animals could all have evolved from these early organisms.
Studying ancient microbial worlds is never easy, and therefore results like the present are very valuable. The researchers hope to use lasers and ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to closely examine early eukaryotes.
