The first photosynthesis happened about 1.25 billion years ago

Identifying and analyzing fossils of algae, thought to be the oldest ancestor of modern plants and animals, scientists have revealed that photosynthesis in plants took place 1.25 billion ago. last year.

The researchers said the study could solve a long-standing mystery about the age of fossil algae - Bangiomorpha pubescens - first discovered in Arctic Canada rocks in 1990.

Previously, photosynthesis was a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that could later be released to fuel the activity of students. object.

It is estimated that this algae fossil dates somewhere between 720 million and 1.2 billion years.

However, in order to determine the exact age of this algae, researchers from McGill University in Canada, collected black shale samples from rock layers, clad in stone units containing the Bangiomorpha fossil. pubescens, from the rugged area of ​​Baffin Island.

Using analytical techniques applied to sedimentary rocks, they determined that these rocks were 1,047 billion years old.

Galen Halverson, an Associate Professor at the Earth and Planet Science Department of McGill, said: "This number is 150 million years smaller than conventional estimates and confirms that this fossil is spectacular".

Halverson added: "This will allow scientists to make more accurate assessments of the early development of eukaryotes, mobile organisms including plants and animals , " Halverson said. more in the article published in Geology.

In addition, scientists have determined that chloroplasts, the structure in plant cells, are photosynthesized when an eukaryote has buried a simple amount of bacteria to for photosynthesis.

The eukaryotes (eukaryotes) grow, subdividing DNA along with its descendants, including plants, producing most of the world's biomass.

The researchers linked the 1.047 billion year figure to a "molecular clock", a computer model used to calculate evolutionary events based on the rate of genetic mutations.

They concluded that chloroplast must be introduced into eukaryotes every photosynthesis about 1.25 billion years ago.

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