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More than 4 billion years ago, the crust of the Earth was still cooling and the oceans were only beginning to form. But in recent years, we’ve started to discover that, even in this hellish environment, life found a way.

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References:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/scientists-may-have-found-earliest-evidence-life-earth
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-oldest-rocks-20151031-story.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/47/14518.full.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664322/
http://www.nature.com/news/oldest-traces-of-life-on-earth-may-lurk-in-canadian-rocks-1.22685
http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature24019
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n1/full/ngeo2025.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248449490_Isotopic_composition_of_reduced_and_oxidized_carbon_in_early_Archaean_rocks_from_Isua_Greenland
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301926803001037?via%3Dihub
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rohana_Chandrajith/publication/223475080_Biogenic_Graphite_as_a_Potential_Geomarker-Application_to_Continental_Reconstructions_of_Pan-African_Gondwana_Terrains/links/581cb8ac08aea429b291f1ab/Biogenic-Graphite-as-a-Potential-Geomarker-Application-to-Continental-Reconstructions-of-Pan-African-Gondwana-Terrains.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=2OUFwR3NrpkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=rubisco+%22carbon-12%22&source=bl&ots=AMNNemQLIV&sig=oQJYXozXNbA7ayyA8sduUmnEass&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc2fvWi9_WAhVL6iYKHXcLBtYQ6AEIVDAI#v=onepage&q=rubisco%20%22carbon-12%22&f=false
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjc2fvWi9_WAhVL6iYKHXcLBtYQFghKMAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.werc.usgs.gov%2FfileHandler.ashx%3FFile%3D%2FLists%2FProducts%2FAttachments%2F2841%2FCarbon%252013%2520Carbon%252012%2520Ratios%2520in%2520Photosynthesis.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2yqu2FWl-3PjH_pgmokFRq
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/27/carbon-found-in-395bn-year-old-rocks-is-remnants-of-ancient-life-say-researchers
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/mu-esl092717.php
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/Stromatolites.htm
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanofr.html
https://nai.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2013/10/Cooler-Early-Earth-Article.pdf