Contested carbon at Saglek
Graphite in Labrador was claimed as life's oldest trace — then the date fell apart.
- When
- Known to
- ± 60 million years
- Era
- Eoarchean, Archean
Isotopically light graphite in metasediments of the Saglek Block was reported in 2017 as evidence of life older than 3.95 billion years, which would have made it the earliest anywhere. A later reassessment found the field relationships between the graphite-bearing rocks and the dated gneiss were never established, so the age is not demonstrated. It is included here as a documented claim and its retraction — an honest picture of how contested this interval is.