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The First Billion Years: When Did Life Emerge?

¹ Department of Earth & Space Sciences, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life), and Molecular Biology Institute, University
of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA
E-mail: schopf{at}ess.ucla.edu

There are three principal lines of evidence from which we can infer the timing of the origin of life on Earth: stromatolites, microfossils, and carbon isotope data. All indicate that life emerged earlier than 3500 million years ago, but the details and exact timing of life's beginnings remain unknown.

KEYWORDS: Archean, stromatolites, microfossils, carbon isotopes, oldest fossils, origin of life

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