00:03scientists believe life started on our planet around 3.7 billion years ago but that life was
00:09much different than the flora and fauna we have today in fact that life was no more than simple
00:13microbes but now experts studying fossils from australia's mcdermott formation say they may
00:18have just found the earliest signs of more complex processes they discovered what are called
00:23thylacoids or minuscule structures within cyanobacteria the fossils are dated as having
00:27been formed some 1.75 billion years ago and it's the oldest evidence of photosynthesis ever found
00:34photosynthesis of course is the means by which plants and some other organisms derive energy from
00:38the sun it's a keystone of many contemporary plants but this might be the missing link with regards to
00:43how tiny microbial creatures ultimately evolved and gained that ability and this was likely also key
00:49for the food chain at that point in time as well and could signal when a big atmospheric change began
00:53on earth as photosynthesis is key in the production of oxygen on our planet in fact the great oxidation
00:59event occurred around 2.4 billion years ago but scientists haven't been able to figure out why
01:04one of the most likely theories has always been the advent of oxygen creating organisms most notably
01:10creatures that undergo photosynthesis
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