22 July, 2025

Origin of life on Earth

Timeline of our planet:

The origin of life on Earth was at least 3.77 billion years ago, possibly as early as 4.41 billion years ago - see: History_of_Earth.

The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago during the Eoarchean era which is the first era of the Archean Eon, spanning from 4.0 to 3.6 billion years ago. All microbes (e.g. bacteria) are single-celled microorganisms made of prokaryotic cells lacking a nucleus. There are microbial fossils, such as stromatolites, found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia.

All humans, animals & plants however are made of eukaryotic cells. An eukaryote is a single cell with complex structures in which the genetic material is organized into chromosomes in the cell nucleus. The first eukaryotes are believed to have formed around 2.1 to 1.5 billion years ago during the Proterozoic eon.

The Mesoproterozoic Era, which is part of the Proterozoic Eon, spanned from 1.6 to 1.0 billion years ago. It's characterized by the breakup of the Columbia supercontinent, the assembly of the Rodinia supercontinent, and the evolution of sexual reproduction. This era also saw the peak of stromatolite diversity and the rise of eukaryotic life, including the earliest evidence of complex multicellular organisms which constitute the origin of life on earth.


Source = wikipedia.