A new study has found that life on Earth emerged surprisingly early. Scientists have determined that the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), the first organism that spawned all the life that exists today on Earth, emerged as early as 4.2 billion years ago.
New research provides the clearest evidence yet that the Cambrian explosion - a rapid burst of evolution 540 million years ago, could have been triggered by only a small increase in oxygen levels in Earth's atmosphere and shallow ocean waters.
Our planet was born around 4.5 billion years ago. To understand this mind-bendingly long history, we need to study rocks and the minerals they are made of. In a new study, evidence of rocks of a similar age were found in Australia.
The hunt for the origin of garnet crystals found on South Australian beaches took researchers thousands of kilometres and half a billion years back in time to a hidden Antarctic mountain range.
An international scientific team has redefined our understanding of archaea, a microbial ancestor to humans from two billion years ago, by showing how they use hydrogen gas.
Geoscientists show that rocks from the Isua Supracrustal Belt in West Greenland have experienced three thermal events throughout their geological history.
Prehistoric marine worms may have made an outsized contribution to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.
New research finds Earth's surface was first sprinkled with fresh water some 4 billion years ago, a whole 500 million years earlier than previously thought.
On the scale of cataclysmic events, the whomping impact of a Mars-sized object that crashed into Earth some 4.5 billion years ago ranks pretty highly: thought to have set in motion the movement of our planet's fractured, rocky crust.
Earth's magnetic field nearly collapsed some 590 million years ago, presumably putting life on the planet's surface at risk of a rise in cosmic radiation.
Rocks that formed some 3.7 billion years ago in the early Archean have given us the earliest glimpse yet of Earth's magnetic field.
Encased inside some of the oldest rocks on Earth are previously overlooked nanocrystals that tell a story about how life might have emerged.
The research team investigated how the emergence of the first living systems from inert geological materials happened on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago.
It is neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. It's not even a bacterium or fungi. It's called a Euglenid – and it's a weird fusion of a bunch of different living things.
Long ago, an alien planet crashed into Earth – causing a collision so big the debris formed the Moon and left mysterious remnants lodged deep in the Earth’s mantle.
