Nature 463, 885-886 (18 February 2010) | doi:10.1038/463885a; Published online 17 February 2010
Roger Buick1
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Abstract
Big and beautiful microfossils have been extracted from rocks that are more than 3 billion years old. They offer tantalizing hints about the antiquity of the eukaryote lineage of organisms that includes ourselves.
Organic-walled microfossils of large size (50 micrometres or more) and of uncertain biological affinities are known as acritarchs. The oldest well-preserved examples come from mid-Proterozoic rocks that are about 1.
Roger Buick is in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and the Astrobiology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA.
Email: buick@ess.washington.edu
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