Archaeology News Online

Large, robust, lens-shaped microfossils from the approximately 3.4 billion-year-old Kromberg Formation of the Kaapvaal Craton in eastern South Africa are not only among the oldest elaborate microorganisms known, but are also related to other intricate microfossils of the same age found in the Pilbara Craton of Australia, according to an international team of scientists. Lenticular organic microfossils in the Kromberg Formation, Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land of South  Africa. Image shown is an optical photomicrograph of a polished thin section, taken in transmitted light  [Credit: Dorothy Oehler/Maud Walsh (Louisiana State University)] The researchers report that the "Kromberg Formation (KF) forms are bona fide, organic Archean microfossils and represent some of the oldest morphologically preserved organisms on Earth," in the July issue of Precambrian Research . They also state that the combination of morphology, occurrence and carbon isotope values argues that the...

A major effort is underway to conserve the last remaining 60 individual paintbrush lilies (Haemanthus pumilio) in the Duthie Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch, South Africa, as well as increase the population through micropropagation. Only 10-15 centimetres high, Haemanthus pumilio is one of the smallest paintbrush lilies. The plants usually flower during  March and April, before the leaves develop. This species prefers to flower after fire, when there is less competition  from other vegetation [Credit: Dr Gary Stafford] Martin Smit, curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, says more than a thousand of the paintbrush lilies once grew in the Duthie reserve. But the reserve is now less than a third of its original size, and the lilies have all but disappeared from previously known locations including Wellington and Klapmuts. "The main reasons for its decline are the destruction of its original habitat (rhenosterveld) and invasives like Port Jackson (Acacia saligna)....

Large, robust, lens-shaped microfossils from the approximately 3.4 billion-year-old Kromberg Formation of the Kaapvaal Craton in eastern South Africa are not only among the oldest elaborate microorganisms known, but are also related to other intricate microfossils of the same age found in the Pilbara Craton of Australia, according to an international team of scientists. Lenticular organic microfossils in the Kromberg Formation, Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land of South  Africa. Image shown is an optical photomicrograph of a polished thin section, taken in transmitted light  [Credit: Dorothy Oehler/Maud Walsh (Louisiana State University)] The researchers report that the "Kromberg Formation (KF) forms are bona fide, organic Archean microfossils and represent some of the oldest morphologically preserved organisms on Earth," in the July issue of Precambrian Research . They also state that the combination of morphology, occurrence and carbon isotope values argues that the...