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Asked by 694nveg45 to Michael, Lauren, Marisol, Sarah, Sophie on 17 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 754nveg45.
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Lauren Burt answered on 17 Nov 2016:
Hey!
I am not sure about this one! But I would guess it must be the oldest thing on the planet- or the thing that was around first! That would be a type of tiny bacteria. These were around right at the beginning and are a few billion years old! Scientists can find fossils of these in rocks and can date them!
I don’t feel so old any more!
Lauren 😀
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Michael Rivera answered on 17 Nov 2016:
From what I remember reading before, the first living creatures lived around 4 billion years ago, and they only had one cell. To give you an idea of how extraordinary that is… in comparison, one human has around 37,000,000,000,000 cells in his or her body!
These lifeforms were rich in the element Carbon – and Carbon is the most important element in all living life, giving structure and support to our cells.
The evidence for the first life is shown by some rocks found in Western Australia that are 4 billion years old. The rocks contain a particularly strong signal of carbon, which is why scientists believe that may have been the first life!
I always think science is so amazing because it can answer such impossible questions!
Michael
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