Three Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils Deciphered

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Three Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils Deciphered

ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2010) â€" About 580 million years ago, life on Earth began a rapid period of change called the Cambrian Explosion, a period defined by the birth of new life forms over many millions of years that ultimately helped bring about the modern diversity of animals. Fossils help palaeontologists chronicle the evolution of life since then, but drawing a picture of life during the 3 billion years that preceded the Cambrian Period is challenging, because the soft-bodied Precambrian cells rarely left fossil imprints. However, those early life forms did leave behind one abundant microscopic fossil: DNA.

It turns out that we are walking around with an intricate fossil record built into our cells, some of while is over 3billion years old!