ENcore un coup pour les adeptes de la Terre jeune

[José K.]

Article du SCIAM :
>April 23, 2004
>Signs of Primeval Life Said Found in Lava Rocks
>
>Scientists studying ancient creatures celebrate finds such as an ankle
>bone or jaw fragment because they help to piece together the varied
>history of our planet’s past inhabitants. But as investigators reach ever
>farther back in time, the evidence of early life becomes increasingly
>difficult to discern. A new discovery may help to fill in some of the
>blanks. Researchers report that tiny tubes in rocks that are billions of
>years old further suggest that microbes were eating their way into lava
>on the ocean floor during Earth’s early history.
>
>Harald Furnes of the University of Bergen in Norway and his colleagues
>detected the trails in pillow lava from South Africa’s Barberton
>Greenstone Belt, which dates to 3.5 billion years ago. The diminutive
>tunnels, just four microns wide and about 50 microns long, look very
>similar to the product of microbial burrowing seen in modern volcanic
>rocks. In addition, the scientists detected carbon on the inside of the
>tubes, which they say is further evidence of the biogenic origin of the
>structures. The authors conclude that their findings "suggest that
>microbial life colonized these subaqueous volcanic rocks soon after their
>eruption almost 3.5 billion years ago."

Pour Julien, "billion" signifie "milliard", en Américain US.