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Tel: (08) 9266 1930, Mobile 0401 103 755; Fax: (08) 9266 2266; Email: l.mayer@curtin.edu.au Web: www.curtin.edu.au
Wednesday 2 July
C189/07
Curtin led team discover key to earliest life on earth
Research paper published in prestigious journal NATURE.
The accepted timeframe for the beginnings of life on Earth is now being questioned by a Curtin University
of Technology led team of scientists, after finding a key indicator to the earliest life forms in diamonds from
Jack Hills in Western Australia.
The 4.2 billion year old diamonds found trapped inside the Jack Hills zircon crystals are the oldest-known
samples of Earth’s carbon. The Curtin led team’s discovery of very high concentrations of carbon 12, or
“light carbon” within these crystals is remarkable as it is a feature usually associated with organic life.
Dr Alexander Nemchin from Curtin’s Department of Applied Geology and the project leader believes the
latest research will revive debate on the early evolution of life on Earth.
“We believe this find to be the oldest terrestrial light carbon reservoir discovered so far,” Dr Nemchin said.
Evidence for ancient life stretches back in time to at least 3.5 billion years ago, in the form of single-celled
organisms that did not require oxygen. The discovery of light carbon in the Jack Hills crystals raises the
question – did a simple life form exist on Earth 700 million years earlier than previously thought?
“We interpret the range of light carbon values observed in these inclusions as a unique chemical marker that
opens up the possibility of biological activity during the period not long after the Earth’s formation,” Dr
Nemchin said.
The Curtin team’s findings are presented in a paper published in the 3 July 2008 issue of the prestigious
international scientific journal Nature. In their paper entitled “A light carbon reservoir recorded in zircon-
hosted diamond from the Jack Hills” the researchers report the composition of 22 diamond and graphite
inclusions from 18 Jack Hills zircon grains.
“The discovery challenges our fundamental understanding of processes active in the early history of the
Earth. It suggests that life may well have appeared on Earth long before the period of heavy-meteorite
bombardment believed by some to have initiated the emergence of life on Earth,” Dr Nemchin said.
“Alternatively, it requires some other process to create the light carbon values, which would then question
the widely held assumption that light carbon means life.”
The discovery will assist mankind in our understanding of the development of the planet and help us to
better assess the conditions of the Earth up to 4,500 billion years ago.
Note to Editor:
In 1983, a Curtin project team discovered extremely old zircon crystals in a collection of rocks located
between Meekathara and Carnarvon. Twenty years later, the oldest diamonds were unexpectedly
discovered in these rocks by many of the original team.
MEDIA RELEASE
The recent paper in Nature is written by a team of people made up of Curtin University academic and
Project Leader, Dr Alexander Nemchin, Martin Whitehouse from the Swedish Museum of Natural History,
Dr Martina Menneken and Dr Thorston Geisler a Masters student and her supervisor from the University of
Munster’s Institute of Mineralogy, and Professors Pidgeon and Wilde from Curtin University’s Applied
Geology Department, who originally identified the old zircons.
Photos available on request.
Contact: Dr Alexander Nemchin from 1500 to 0300 hours Australian Western Standard Time on 0411 520
154, a.nemchin@curtin.edu.au
or Lisa Mayer, PR Co-ordinator, Curtin, from 0900 to 1800 hours Australian Western Standard Time, 08
9266 1930, 0401 103 755 l.mayer@curtin.edu.au
CRICOS provider code: 00301J
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