THE discovery of ancient fossils in Australia has strengthened the evidence that life began in "black smokers" deep beneath the sea.

These hydrothermal vents would have been ideal for nurturing life, some researchers have argued, as they provided a constant supply of nutrients and were protected from the ultraviolet radiation and asteroids bombarding the planet's surface. However, only relatively recent fossils have been found in rocks associated with vents. Now Birger Rasmussen of the University of Western Australia, Perth, has found the imprints of what could be thread-like microorganisms in metal sulphide deposits dating back 3 billion years (Nature, vol 405, p 676). The ancient microbes probably thrived in the absence of light or oxygen in scalding temperatures of up to 110°C, he suggests.

Comment subject
Comment
No HTML except lower case italic tags or lower case bold tags, please: <i> or <b>
Your name
Your email
	We need your email in case we need to contact you about the comment. We will not use it for any other purpose.

• For exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist Print Edition
• For what's in New Scientist magazine this week see contents
• Search all stories
• Contact us about this story
• Sign up for our free newsletter