The Gunflint microfossils
Filaments and spheres in Ontario chert, preserved so well that traces of protein survive.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 million years
- Era
- Paleoproterozoic, Proterozoic
The 1.88-billion-year-old Gunflint Formation contains the best-preserved Precambrian microfossils known — recognisable bacterial filaments, spheres and stars. Molecular analysis has detected amide groups likely derived from proteins, despite the rock having been heated to around 160°C. Their discovery in 1954 proved that Precambrian rocks could hold fossils at all, and effectively founded the study of early life.