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Dear FossilForum goers, I am wondering if anyone could provide me with information on the what the simplest or oldest fossils found are. There seem to be conflicting reports on the internet and I feel that this is a good platform to get answers. I am trying to do more research on and thinking about the origins of life and may purchase so of these fossils. Just a cool hobby or personal project of mine. If anyone has their own ideas on how life began please feel free to share, I really want to access the full scope of thought on one of the most interesting unanswered questions. Kind regards, Trevor

NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Chemical Building Blocks For Life On Mars, Morning Edition, June 7, 2018 https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617235884/nasas-curiosity-rover-finds-chemical-building-blocks-for-life-on-mars NASA finds ancient organic material, mysterious methane on Mars, June 7, 2018 by Sean Potter, NASA https://phys.org/news/2018-06-nasa-ancient-material-mysterious-methane.html https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7154 The abstract is at: Eigenbrode, J.E., Summons, R.E., Steele, A., Freissinet, C., Millan, M., and many others, 2018, Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars. Science. Vol. 360, Issue 6393, pp. 1096-1101 DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9185 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6393/1096 Yours, Paul H.

Hi all, Figured this would be the best place to share this. So, there is a channel on YouTube that is called PBS Eons. LINK They post videos regularly, and each one presents a random topic in paleontology. They explain the info in that topic in detail, but in a way that is still easy to understand for early amateurs of the science. This has led them to post videos about namely: the role of conodont fossils in geology, turtle shell evolution, the mystery of the "Devil's corkscrews", how the first multicellular organism appeared, the PETM, and countless more. Every time you learn something new on paleontology, so if you love this awesome science as much as me I definitely recommend that you go take a look and subscribe to their channel! Well recently they made a 3-part collaboration video with PBS Spacetime and It's Okay To Be Smart which are two other nice YouTube channels that tackle more of science's mysteries. In this collab all 3 channels talk about one of our biggest questions: How did life first appear on Earth? All 3 videos are fantastic (IMO). They beautifully managed to merge physics, chemistry, biology and paleontology together in order to attempt to find out the origin of life itself. Very complicated and detailed, yet easy to understand. So yeah, definitely a must-see in my opinion! Here are the 3 videos: PBS Eons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk213XSSktQ (This one is really about the biology and paleontology of the earliest lifeform) PBS Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcfLZSL7YGw (This one explains how it is possible for life to actually exist/how it works in the universe) It's Okay To Be Smart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uAJY1mqtw4 (This one aims to find out how life first came to be) The 3 videos are each interesting on their own, but watching them together is what really makes them cool. So, if you have nothing planned for the next 45 minutes, then now you know what to do! Warning: there is A LOT of info to get your head wrapped around, especially if you are not very well-versed in deep science! But it is still worth the effort of trying to understand, because you will learn so much from it. I hope you will enjoy these videos as much as I did! Happy learning, Max

a metabolism? I've read in many places now that "life" is very difficult to define. A big question in biology, paleontology, or science in general is "what is life?" or "how do we define life?". NASA's definition is "A self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution". But I'm just wondering why life shouldn't be defined as "anything with a metabolism". Has anything ever lived that didn't have a metabolism? Is there anything that is non-living that does have one? Thanks. Scott

Hello All! 100% novice here. I found the item shown below at a local Southern California beach. The first image is when I first picked it up, seemingly covered in tar and wet. The second image is how it looks today, after being washed and dried. It has an almost wood like feel to it, its very light. But the shape of it has lead several people to comment that they think it may be some sort of tooth. So so I come before you, completely clueless, and ask for some expertise. Thanks in advance!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/oldest-life-earth-iron-fossils-canada-vents-science.html