"Dream, Dream, Dream! Conduct these dreams into thoughts, and then transform them into action."
- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
"Dream, Dream, Dream! Conduct these dreams into thoughts, and then transform them into action."
- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
17 Mar 2017
Scientists have unearthed the world's oldest plant like fossils in sedimentary rocks in central India. The preserved contents are estimated to be 1.6 billion years old, and contain structures like those found in red algae.
There is evidence of existence of older fossils on earth dating back 3.5 billion years, but are single-celled organisms which do not have nuclei and other specialized cellular structures known as organelles.
Researchers studying the two types of fossils said that they were similar to red algae. One specimen appeared to contain filaments and another was made of more robust structures. The specimens are found to be 400 million years older than the previous oldest algae discovered suggesting that multicellular organisms came into existence far earlier than it was perceived.
Red algae, or rhodophytes, thrive in coastal areas and along the continental shelf in oceans worldwide. The new fossils were discovered in sheets of microbial organisms preserved in rock. Scans using synchrotron-generated X-ray tomographic microscopy - essentially, very high-energy X-rays - delivered 3D views of cellular composition in the specimens that closely resembled algae, particularly diamond-shaped structures similar to cellular parts that algae use for photosynthesis.
Until now, the oldest known fossil algae were dated to 1.2 billion years ago and these new discoveries have brought excitement among the researchers as such a discovery is very rare and interpreting them can be challenging.
