Abstract The Archean era (4 to 2.5 billion years ago, Ga) yielded rocks that include the
oldest conclusive traces of life as well as many controversial occurrences. Carbonaceous …

Archaean greenstone belts and associated granitic rocks comprise some of the most diverse
rock types on the Earth's surface and were formed during the early stages of the …

Construction and assembly of the Geologic Time Scale involves:(a) constructing a relative
(chronostratigraphic) standard scale for key periods in the Earth's rock record;(b) identifying …

The identification of fossils or biogenic sedimentary structures in rocks of Archean age is
difficult, because similar lithological features could rise from purely physical or chemical …

Lava tubes and basaltic caves are common features in volcanic terrains on Earth. Lava
tubes and cave-like features have also been identified on Mars based on orbital imagery …

Studies investigating the structure and diversity of Earth's record of life older than 3.2 Ga are
restricted to two locations worldwide in which sedimentary rocks have escaped regional …

The petrogenesis of contemporary igneous and metamorphic rocks is commonly explained
by plate tectonics, but how far back in time does this relationship hold? Here we investigate …

Terrestrial ecosystems have been largely regarded as plant-dominated land surfaces, with
the earliest records appearing in the early Phanerozoic (< 550 Ma). Yet the presence of …

Microfossils, stromatolites, and chemical biosignatures indicate that Earth became a
biological planet more than 3.5 billion years ago, making most of life's history microbial …

Abstract The∼ 3.48 billion-year-old Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, is
a key geological unit for the study of Earth's earliest life and the habitats it occupied. Here …