A research team including the geobiologist Dr. Helge Missbach from the University of Cologne has detected organic molecules and gases trapped in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks. A widely accepted hypothesis says that the earliest life forms used small organic molecules as building materials and energy sources. However, the existence of such components in early habitats on Earth was as yet unproven. The current study, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that solutions from archaic hydrothermal vents contained essential components that formed a basis for the earliest life on our planet.
source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-fuel-earliest-life-molecules-billion-year-old.html
