Scientists have long pondered how and when the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes occurred. A collaborative research team from Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo may have provided some answers after discovering new types of microfossils dating 1.9 billion years.
September 5, 2022
Scientists have long pondered how and when the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes occurred. A collaborative research team from Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo may have provided some answers after discovering new types of microfossils dating 1.9 billion years.
Details of their findings were published in the journal Precambrian Research on August 19, 2022.
The Gunflint Formation traverses the northern part of Minnesota into Ontario, along the northwestern shores of Lake Superior. The first bacterial microfossils were discovered there in 1954, with Gunflint microfossils now recognized as a “benchmark” in the field of life evolution.
Yet, since the 1970s, little research on the diversity of Gunflint microfossils has been conducted, and no conclusive evidence of eukaryotic microfossils has been reported.
Seeking to reassess the microfossils, the research team carried out a geological survey of the Gunflint Formation and collected microfossil-containing rocks.
