We value your feedback.

If you require general information not currently available on this site, or were not able to find what you were looking for, you can contact the webmaster.

Otherwise send us your feedback or lodge an official complaint so that we can ensure this site meets your needs.

Earth's Earliest Life Forms

For the last 25 years, the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) has been documenting key sites in the eastern Pilbara that are believed to contain evidence of some of the oldest known fossils.

The most significant stromatolite and microfossil localities include the North Pole, Strelley Pool, and Chinaman Creek areas. Several new sites were discovered during GSWA's geological mapping program on the North Shaw, Muccan, and Cooragoora 1:100 000 sheets. In particular, a locality initially discovered by Dr Alec Trendall, a former Director of GSWA — and documented by Hans Hofmann of the University of Montreal and McGill University; Kath Grey, Martin Van Kranendonk, and Arthur Hickman of GSWA; and Ralph Thorpe of the Geological Survey of Canada — has provided significant new evidence about the possible nature of early life on Earth.

The new locality contains exceptionally well preserved stromatolites, comprising large cones (some more than 1 m high), smaller cones resembling egg-cartons, and lateral branches and columns. Interpretation of these structures as biogenic remains highly controversial, but many international experts agree that the Trendall locality structures probably had a biogenic origin.

GSWA has organised numerous international excursions to the Pilbara sites so geologists, palaeobiologists, and astrobiologists could examine the evidence for early life. The sites have also featured in many popular science articles and in the media. In part, the high level of interest stems from the search for life on Mars. Mars and Earth probably shared similar early histories. No undisputed evidence of life has yet been discovered on Mars, but there is plenty of evidence that environments existed that were suitable for stromatolite growth. If stromatolite structures are found on Mars, we need to compare them with similar structures on Earth. The Pilbara fossils provide an important analogue for examining any potential Martian fossils.