Chemical evidence from Australia's Barney Creek Formation indicates that eukaryotes—organisms with clearly defined cell nuclei—existed at least 1.6 billion years ago.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed study (published in PNAS, indexed on PubMed) and corroborated by multiple reputable science news outlets (CNN, Science News, Phys.org, NHM, GFZ). [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=silver indep_score=0.87 clusters=5 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- The 11 most astonishing scientific discoveries of 2023 (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/steroid-fossil-lost-world-microbe-life (corroboration)
- https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/june/traces-ancient-life-found-in-billion-year-old-rocks-australia.html (corroboration)
- https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/world/organic-compounds-eukaryotes-ancient-rocks-discovery-scn/index.html (corroboration)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37286610/ (corroboration)
- https://www.gfz.de/en/press/news/details/ueberreste-einer-ausgestorbenen-welt-von-lebewesen-entdeckt (corroboration)