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Oldest life forms: Extraterrestrial origin or design? Self-organization?

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From Nature:

(paywall) Although it is not known when or where life on Earth began, some of the earliest habitable environments may have been submarine-hydrothermal vents. Here we describe putative fossilized microorganisms that are at least 3,770 million and possibly 4,280 million years old in ferruginous sedimentary rocks, interpreted as seafloor-hydrothermal vent-related precipitates, from the Nuvvuagittuq belt in Quebec, Canada. These structures occur as micrometre-scale haematite tubes and filaments with morphologies and mineral assemblages similar to those of filamentous microorganisms from modern hydrothermal vent precipitates and analogous microfossils in younger rocks. The Nuvvuagittuq rocks contain isotopically light carbon in carbonate and carbonaceous material, which occurs as graphitic inclusions in diagenetic carbonate rosettes, apatite blades intergrown among carbonate rosettes and magnetite–haematite granules, and is associated with carbonate in direct contact with the putative microfossils. Collectively, these observations are consistent with an oxidized biomass and provide evidence for biological activity in submarine-hydrothermal environments more than 3,770 million years ago. More.

If the earliest dates hold up, they are an argument either for design or an extraterrestrial origin of life, or both. Or self-organization? Darwinian claims are laughable in so short a period in the absence of evidence.

But will it be possible to have a serious discussion in today’s tenure world?

See also: Earliest evidence of life on Earth found at 3.77 bya?

Origin of life requires “a privileged function?”

and

What we know and don’t know about the origin of life

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