Question: how old are the oldest fossils

Oli Wilson answered on 8 Nov 2017:

Earth is about 4.55 billion years old, and life has been around for most of that time. Some of the earliest life forms were things called Stromatolites – some fossilised ones from Greenland were 3.7 billion years old, and you can actually go and see living (though younger) examples in several parts of the world. There might be fossils of even earlier life, though – earlier this year a team of scientists said they thought they’d found fossil evidence of bacteria dating back as far as 4.28 billion years. If they’re right, that really is astonishing. You can read about their discovery here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39117523