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Politics : Evolution
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To: TigerPaw who wrote (51173)3/28/2014 6:54:15 PM
From: Brumar89  Read Replies (1) of 69300
 
Why would we think microbes were different once? In fact, the kinds of microbes that lived 3.5B ya are still here:

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A few stromatolites, or domelike like rock structures built by ancient microbial communities, have been found at the Strelley Pool formation in Australia that may date to about 3.45 billion years ago. Fossil sulfur-eating microbes from about 3.4 billion years ago have also been found there as well.
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Chemolithotrophs harvest energy by chemically modifying minerals such as iron or sulfur in the rock, and many such bacteria are still alive today.

But the newly discovered communities were anchored to the seashore close to sun and water, so they probably weren't eating minerals found in rock. Instead, they must have harvested energy through photosynthesis, suggesting such bacteria evolved earlier than previously thought.

"That means very early in Earth's history, microbes had switched from using rocks for its energy to using light," Hazen said.
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