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An Australian geologist has reported finding
fossil evidence for the existence of heat-loving microorganisms that lived
near submarine hot springs about 3.2 billion years ago, some 2.7 billion
years earlier than previously believed. The microbes lived under extreme
conditions of heat and darkness near volcanic vents on the deep-ocean
floor where sunlight could not penetrate. The researcher's findings could lend support to the theory that life on Earth first originated on the deep-ocean floor in extreme heat, rather than in warm pools of water on the surface of Earth as many scientists have long conjectured. According to this theory, the earliest creatures derived their energy through a process known as chemo synthesis by metabolizing inorganic chemicals such as sulfur, rather through the process of photosynthesis, which converts sunlight into energy.
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