Indian Researchers Have Found Signs Of Life Which Existed 2.5 Billion Years Ago

According to a recent report, researchers from IIT Kharagpur has found out signs of life which existed more than 2.5 billion years ago, when the Great Oxidation Event just began. This is believed to be under the list of the most impressive discoveries of the recent history.

The Great Oxidation Event is a term to define the historical period when Oxygen started moving from oceans to the atmosphere for the first time, marking the development of surface life on our planet. In theories given by scientists for long years, one of the living things that first appeared on Earth was anaerobic microbial cells. Different from other creatures, these cells didn’t need oxygen to 'breathe'.

The places where these cyanobacteria took shelter were surrounding geothermal events. After experiencing the biological processes, they created oxygen the seabeds absorbed in millions of years before turning out bubbles and flying into the atmosphere.

The researchers revealed that these bacteria’s signs have been found in the Deccan, around 03 km below the sea surface. In fact, in the beginning, they had no intention to go to the area. According to the government’s request, they came there to conduct a search in Konya, Maharashtra, along with geologists. This incident happened in 2014. In 1964, the place seemingly experienced a fierce earthquake and the team’s mission was to find out reasons behind it.

Konya is one of the places to form the oldest igneous rock in the world, and that urged the scientists to ferret out signs of life under the ground. Despite lacking air, sunlight, and water on the way to reach the destination, the team finally saw what they wanted to see, the microbes.

They will have to conduct a lot of complicated tests to specify whether these newly found microbes are living or not, but at least, they have contributed to confirming the authenticity of the theory from many decades.