Today it represents something quite different: a set of extraordinary clues, recently reinterpreted, to one of the deepest and most puzzling mysteries of life on Earth. After burbling along for ...

Meanwhile, viruses degrade more easily than bacteria, so there are no physical fossils of viruses. Related: What was the first animal on Earth? And dating viruses through changes in their genetic ...

As Earth cools, a crust forms over it ... and small land blocks collide with one another to produce the first continents. 3,800 mya: Bacteria diversify Single-celled bacteria are the oldest ...

The earliest living organisms were microscopic bacteria ... shielding the Earth's surface from harmful solar radiation. The first multicelled animals appeared in the fossil record almost 600 ...

Earth's bacteria are evolving to survive in space. Several strains sourced from the International Space Station (ISS) differed from the same strains on Earth, having qualities specifically adapted ...

Blakemore (1975) first documented magnetotactic bacteria ... similar to crystals synthesized by magnetotactic bacteria on Earth (McKay 1996, Thomas-Keprta 2002). As we begin to understand Earth's ...