Chemical evidence from Australia's Barney Creek Formation indicates that eukaryotes—organisms with clearly defined cell nuclei—existed at least 1.6 billion years ago.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed study (published in PNAS, indexed on PubMed) and corroborated by multiple reputable science news outlets (CNN, Science News, Phys.org, NHM, GFZ).
Sources
- The 11 most astonishing scientific discoveries of 2023 (nationalgeographic.com)
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/steroid-fossil-lost-world-microbe-life (sciencenews.org)
- https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/june/traces-ancient-life-found-in-billion-year-old-rocks-australia.html (nhm.ac.uk)
- https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/world/organic-compounds-eukaryotes-ancient-rocks-discovery-scn/index.html (cnn.com)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37286610/ (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- https://www.gfz.de/en/press/news/details/ueberreste-einer-ausgestorbenen-welt-von-lebewesen-entdeckt (gfz.de)