Lava-munching microbes were the earliest life on land

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By Michael Marshall

The Mkhonjwa geotrail

The Mkhonjwa geotrail, portion of the Genesis Route betwixt Barberton and Swaziland successful Mpumalanga, South Africa

Friedrich von Horsten/Alamy

Volcanoes whitethorn person helped aboriginal microscopic organisms to colonise the land. The oldest known land-dwelling microorganisms lived successful estuaries adjacent to erupting volcanoes, which whitethorn person provided them with indispensable nutrients.

“This sedimentary environment, interacting with the volcanic environment, created the cleanable conditions for beingness to spread,” says Deon Janse van Rensburg astatine the University of Jena successful Germany.

Long earlier animals and plants, the lone beingness connected Earth was azygous celled. Fossils of microorganisms …

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