A group of scientists found the oldest evidence of terrestrial life, about three thousand four hundred and eighty million years ago, in some deposits of Pilbara hot springs in Australia.

The discovery situates in a much earlier period the presence of microbial life on mainland, whose oldest test so far was found in South African deposits rich in organic matter.

The main test of the study are stromatolites, microorganisms that form a kind of structure of rocky layers and which the investigation located in the deposits of the thermal waters of Dresser Formation, in Pilbara.

The research may have implications in the debate about the origin of life and situate the springs of thermal waters as an alternative to the hypothesis that life was developed in the oceans and then adapted to mainland.