Bacteria learned to bind atmospheric nitrogen a billion years earlier than they thought.

Ancients surveyed by geologists from the northwest of Australia

A team of geologists, including representatives of various countries and scientific organizations, was able to detect in the most ancient terrestrial rocks possible traces of nitrogen bound by ancient bacteria. According to Roger Buick, one of the representatives of the team of scientists, the researchers were able to get a clear indication that earth life and at the dawn of existence felt very good. It is now believed that life on Earth began to develop actively when bacteria learned to bind atmospheric nitrogen, translating it into compounds available to other living organisms. As a result, these new microorganisms continued to evolve, becoming the ancestors of the current diversity of animal and plant species ( life began even earlier, 3.5-3.8 billion years ago ).

Previously it was believed that bacteria taught to bind atmospheric nitrogen only 2 billion years ago. If the geologists' assumptions are true, then life felt good even 3.2 billion years ago, and there was no nitrogen starvation - nitrogen in the bound form was quite enough for use by other microorganisms and their communities.

Proof of this can serve rocks formed at a specified time in the regions where Australia and South Africa are now located. The formation of such rocks occurred under water, in the Earth’s atmosphere there was still no oxygen, and the rocks themselves were formed far from the centers of volcanic activity. Accordingly, the formation of rocks took place in calm conditions, and now scientists can easily study the ancient geological "chronicle". The authors studied 52 rock samples from 2.75 to 3.2 billion years old, collected in South Africa and northwest Australia.
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The study and analysis of the data obtained shows that the ratio of atoms of various nitrogen isotopes in these ancient rocks is about the same as in much younger rocks, which were already formed under the conditions of the active activity of nitrogen-binding bacteria. All of this may indicate that 3.2 billion years ago bacteria knew how to bind nitrogen. At the same time, the bacteria had to use very complex biochemical processes to communicate atmospheric nitrogen, which is surprising, because it was previously believed that these processes were developed by living beings a billion years later.

According to another analysis, the ancient bacteria used molybdenum to bind nitrogen (which is exactly what modern bacteria do). But at that time the composition of the water of the seas and oceans was very different from the modern, and there was practically no molybdenum in the water. But he was in the rocks, and scientists believe that the ancient bacteria lived on land, in areas close to the water, which were washed by the ancient ocean. Perhaps the most ancient life existed in the form of mucus on wet stones.

So far, the discovery of scientists and its significance is still under discussion, but one thing is clear - the origin of life on Earth could have happened not entirely according to the scenario that modern science uses. Some bricks in the foundation of science will probably have to be replaced. But only in the event that the theory of the team of geologists, the authors of the discovery described above, proves to be fair.