4 ms·

“Oldest record of life on Earth” found in Quebec

56 points by mthoms 10y ago

Raphmedia 10y ago
I strongly recommend visiting the Miguasha National Park (which is a Unesco World Heritage Site) if you are in Quebec. They have a great collection of fossils and some great trails you can hike on. It's close to a lot of touristic areas too! http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/686 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/686
- sebtoast 10y ago
  I just wanted to point out that it is in the province of Quebec but pretty far from the bigger cities like Montréal or Quebec City (about 8 hour drive from Montréal).
  - Raphmedia 10y ago
    I'm not exactly sure as to how they do it because as a local I simply drive the 8 hours but a lot of tourists choose to spent their vacation in that region of Quebec, skipping the city life Montréal and Québec City. I see a lot of Europeans and a lot of Asians tourist when I go to Gaspé!
    - sebtoast 10y ago
      That's actually pretty cool. I'm trying to go to Gaspé/Percé for my next vacation.
      - Raphmedia 10y ago
        Make sure you visit les Îles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) at least once in your life! Pretty unique islands!
        sebtoast 10y ago
        I will for sure. We went to visit Manic-5 two years ago and loved it. There so much places I've never visited in the province yet and I want to change that!
lkrubner 10y ago
About this: "scientists found fossilized traces of bacteria in iron ore samples" I'm not clear if the scientists declared this to be bacteria, in the technical sense, or if the journalist decided to use the word "bacteria" as a synonym for "single celled organism". Does anyone know? Is the claim that this is definitely bacteria, and not Archaea? Also, on a slightly different topic, this would mean that life existed at a time when Earth was still getting hit with immense asteroids, of the type that would leave craters at least 800 kilometers across (as we know was happening to the moon at the same time). Everyone I've read on this topic assumes such a massive hit would sterilize the whole planet. So did the single celled organisms survive such hits, or was life re-created many times?
- dekhn 10y ago
  Yes, previously people believed that the heavy bombardment would have sterilized the earth. Apparently (hard to say for sure) that assumption was wrong. It raises all sorts of exciting questions and completely changes the landscape for what early life looked like.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  >Also, on a slightly different topic, this would mean that life existed at a time when Earth was still getting hit with immense asteroids, of the type that would leave craters at least 800 kilometers across (as we know was happening to the moon at the same time). Everyone I've read on this topic assumes such a massive hit would sterilize the whole planet. So did the single celled organisms survive such hits, or was life re-created many times? Nobody knows! It's an important question though, especially if you believe in some variant of the 'Great Filter' hypothesis. If the leap from organic molecules to single-celled life is "easy" (as demonstrated by repeated iteration in our past) then the filter lays beyond that. Then the question is whether multicellular life is the big leap?
- digler999 10y ago
  > did the single celled organisms survive such hits or perhaps life itself was delivered by these hits ?
- WilliamDhalgren 10y ago
Ericson2314 10y ago
I think it absokutely amazing that life has been around on our tiny planet for 1/3–1/4 the existence of the universe. Wow, what a feat! Maybe we're the 3rd 4th "generation" of intelligent life, or even earlier! What a lonely feat.
- srean 10y ago
  In fact, for a long time the methods used to date the universe using cosmic observation would gave us dates that were more recent than some of the older rocks on earth.
aaron695 10y ago
More balance link - http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523

56 points by mthoms 10y ago

I strongly recommend visiting the Miguasha National Park (which is a Unesco World Heritage Site) if you are in Quebec. They have a great collection of fossils and some great trails you can hike on. It's close to a lot of touristic areas too! http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/686 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/686

sebtoast 10y ago
I just wanted to point out that it is in the province of Quebec but pretty far from the bigger cities like Montréal or Quebec City (about 8 hour drive from Montréal).
- Raphmedia 10y ago
  I'm not exactly sure as to how they do it because as a local I simply drive the 8 hours but a lot of tourists choose to spent their vacation in that region of Quebec, skipping the city life Montréal and Québec City. I see a lot of Europeans and a lot of Asians tourist when I go to Gaspé!
  - sebtoast 10y ago
    That's actually pretty cool. I'm trying to go to Gaspé/Percé for my next vacation.
    - Raphmedia 10y ago
      Make sure you visit les Îles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) at least once in your life! Pretty unique islands!
      - sebtoast 10y ago
        I will for sure. We went to visit Manic-5 two years ago and loved it. There so much places I've never visited in the province yet and I want to change that!

lkrubner 10y ago

About this: "scientists found fossilized traces of bacteria in iron ore samples" I'm not clear if the scientists declared this to be bacteria, in the technical sense, or if the journalist decided to use the word "bacteria" as a synonym for "single celled organism". Does anyone know? Is the claim that this is definitely bacteria, and not Archaea? Also, on a slightly different topic, this would mean that life existed at a time when Earth was still getting hit with immense asteroids, of the type that would leave craters at least 800 kilometers across (as we know was happening to the moon at the same time). Everyone I've read on this topic assumes such a massive hit would sterilize the whole planet. So did the single celled organisms survive such hits, or was life re-created many times?

dekhn 10y ago
Yes, previously people believed that the heavy bombardment would have sterilized the earth. Apparently (hard to say for sure) that assumption was wrong. It raises all sorts of exciting questions and completely changes the landscape for what early life looked like.
M_Grey 10y ago
>Also, on a slightly different topic, this would mean that life existed at a time when Earth was still getting hit with immense asteroids, of the type that would leave craters at least 800 kilometers across (as we know was happening to the moon at the same time). Everyone I've read on this topic assumes such a massive hit would sterilize the whole planet. So did the single celled organisms survive such hits, or was life re-created many times? Nobody knows! It's an important question though, especially if you believe in some variant of the 'Great Filter' hypothesis. If the leap from organic molecules to single-celled life is "easy" (as demonstrated by repeated iteration in our past) then the filter lays beyond that. Then the question is whether multicellular life is the big leap?
digler999 10y ago
> did the single celled organisms survive such hits or perhaps life itself was delivered by these hits ?
WilliamDhalgren 10y ago

Ericson2314 10y ago

I think it absokutely amazing that life has been around on our tiny planet for 1/3–1/4 the existence of the universe. Wow, what a feat! Maybe we're the 3rd 4th "generation" of intelligent life, or even earlier! What a lonely feat.

srean 10y ago
In fact, for a long time the methods used to date the universe using cosmic observation would gave us dates that were more recent than some of the older rocks on earth.

aaron695 10y ago

More balance link - http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523