We used the geological record to address this gap in our understanding, by studying the oldest-known #eukaryote #fossils and their host rocks: single-celled microfossils from the 1.75–1.4 billion-year-old sedimentary successions of the Greater McArthur Basin in the Northern Territory, Australia
Integrated palaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses of ancient rocks from Australia show that early eukaryotes were largely restricted to oxygenated benthic habitats, probably posse...