Study Suggests Complex Life Began 2.1 Billion Years Ago, Not 635 Million

PHOTO: Artist’s impression of the lobate macrofossils
living 2.1 billion years ago in a shallow marine inland
sea created by the collision of two continents.
(Professor Abderrazzak El Albani, University of Poitiers, France.)

A team of international researchers has challenged the long-held belief that complex life forms first emerged on Earth 635 million years ago, presenting findings that show life may have existed over a billion years earlier.

In a study published in Precambrian Research Monday by scientists from Cardiff University in Wales, researchers found environmental evidence that complex life existed 1.5 billion years earlier than previously believed but failed to "spread" globally.

This evidence, according to the study's authors, could suggest a "two-step" evolution to complex life on Earth.

By Leah Sarnoff.

Full story at Yahoo News.