World’s Oldest Plant Fossil, At 1.6 Billion Years Old, Discovered In India

A team of researchers has discovered fossils of 1.6 billion-year-old probable red algae in India, indicating that advanced multi-cellular life evolved on earth much earlier than previously thought.

The study, which appeared in the open access journal PLOS Biology, found two kinds of fossils resembling red algae – the first type is thread-like, the other one consists of fleshy colonies – in uniquely well-preserved sedimentary rocks at Chitrakoot in Central India.

The scientists were able to see distinct inner cell structures and so-called cell fountains, the bundles of packed and splaying filaments that form the body of the fleshy forms and are characteristic of red algae.

The earliest traces of life on Earth are at least 3.5 billion years old. These single-celled organisms, unlike eukaryotes, lack nuclei and other organelles. Discoveries of early multicellular eukaryotes have been sporadic and difficult to interpret, challenging scientists trying to reconstruct and date the tree of life.

The oldest known red algae before the present discovery was 1.2 billion years old. The Indian fossils, 400 million years older and by far the oldest plant-like fossils ever found, suggest that the early branches of the tree of life need to be recalibrated.

With Inputs From ANI.