BIOL 102 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Paleontology
12 May 2020
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Scientists have discovered micro-organisms living beneath the ocean floor that appear to have not evolved for more than two billion years, a finding that nonetheless may support the theory of evolution. The researchers examined communities of fossilized, sulfur-cycling bacteria found in two rock deposits in western australia. The first deposit, about 1. 8 billion years old, contained bacteria that was nearly identical to the second, about 2. 3 billion years old. That"s the evolutionary distance from the earliest trilobites to human beings, said j. William schopf, a paleontologist at the university of california, los angeles, and the lead author of the study. Dr. schopf and his colleagues then compared the specimens with modern communities of sulfur bacteria found off the coast of chile in 2007. The bacteria were essentially no different, the researchers found. The lack of evolution stems from the bacteria"s unchanging environment, dr. schopf and his colleagues concluded in proceedings of the national academy of sciences.
