Oldest non-stromatolites found, according to Nature News and Views, vol. 563, pp190-191 8 November 2018.
In 2016 scientists claim to have identified fossilised algal mats, knowns as stromatolites, in rocks of the Isua Supracrustal Belt, Greenland, dated as 3.7 billion years. This made them the oldest stromatolites ever found, displacing 3.45 billion year dated rocks from Australia as the oldest.
Another group of scientists have now studied the layered cone shaped formation that was identified as remains of stromatolites, and claim it is simply a natural rock formation, without any biological content. Stromatolites are formed by algae laying down minerals in shallow marine environments. The scientists who conducted the new study suggest the Greenland rock formation is actually the result of carbonate minerals crystallising from fluids circulating through existing rocks.
Editorial Comment: We reported the 2016 study, here and made the comment: “Drat! This editor has specimens from the previously ‘oldest’ Dresser formation, so we have been outclassed by the new find.” Following this new study, maybe we still have a sample of the “oldest stromatolite”.
Whatever the outcome of these two studies turns out, our constant comment remains; ‘It is time for evolutionists to admit that really “old rocks” containing stromatolites provide no evidence for evolution.’ Stromatolite microbes have not evolved from or into any other form of life because stromatolites with the same structure still live today. The best-known examples of present-day stromatolites are in Shark Bay Western Australia. They are classic examples of “living fossils”, a term coined by Charles Darwin for creatures whose living representatives show no evidence of evolution. In fact, such creatures truly are evidence that living things have reproduced after their kinds, just as Genesis says Christ the Creator made them to do.
Evidence News vol. 18 No. 17
21 November 2018
Creation Research Australia
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