Abstract
From 3.87 to 2.50 Ga: A Habitable Planet Becomes Inhabited
Between 3.87 and 2.5 billion years before the present (3.87–2.5 Ga), significant continental masses were generated in an environment where, due to a greater internal heat production, the mechanisms that operated were different from those active nowadays. As far as the atmosphere was concerned, it was lacking in oxygen. And life? The most ancient, incontestable, fossil signatures have an age of 2.7 billion years. Nevertheless, a sheaf of arguments suggests that life might have been born by at least 3.5 Ga.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Gargaud, M., Martin, H., López-García, P., Montmerle, T., Pascal, R. (2012). The Messages from the Oldest Terrestrial Rocks. In: Young Sun, Early Earth and the Origins of Life. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22552-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22552-9_6
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Online ISBN: 978-3-642-22552-9
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