Researchers from Texas State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, think that life on Earth may have started during the Hadean period, about 700 million years after the planet formed. This ancient era was marked by intense heat, volcanic eruptions, and a hostile environment.
The idea is based on new evidence from zircons, which are minerals that can preserve data of geologic events. These findings suggest that surface temperatures around 4.4 billion years ago were low enough to allow for liquid water, a crucial ingredient for life.
By comparing genetic features of modern microbes with ancient fossils, scientists hope to uncover the origins of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) and the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA). Researchers are using molecular clocks and genomic data to track evolutionary changes and shed light on the emergence of life on Earth.
The study’s authors believe that this new information will greatly improve our understanding of how life evolved on our planet, allowing us to uncover historical trends encoded in biological molecules.
Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a70570658/all-of-life-has-the-same-ancestor-scientists-are-still-figuring-out-how-old-it-is