Structures at Isua are reported as 3.7 Ga stromatolites
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Nutman and colleagues described centimetre-scale conical laminated structures in 3,700 million-year-old dolomitic rocks at Isua, exposed by unusually extensive snow-melt, and interpreted them as stromatolites — which would make them by a wide margin the oldest morphological evidence of life. The claim attracted immediate attention precisely because it was morphological: unlike the isotope evidence from the same belt it offered something visible. It also carried an obvious hazard, since the Isua rocks have been metamorphosed and deformed, and deformation can generate structures that mimic layering.
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- Isua supracrustal belt, southwest Greenlandconcerns
- Stromatolitesconcerns
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