The Apex chert microfossils
Filaments in Australian chert were hailed as the oldest fossils on Earth — then spent 30 years under attack.
- When
- Known to
- ± 20 million years
- Era
- Paleoarchean, Archean
Carbonaceous filaments in the 3.465-billion-year-old Apex chert were described in 1993 as cyanobacteria-like microfossils. A 2002 challenge reinterpreted them as abiotic carbon from a hydrothermal vein, and the argument has run ever since, with Raman spectroscopy, carbon isotopes and three-dimensional imaging brought in on both sides. The dispute reshaped how the whole field evaluates claimed microfossils.