Life in Lochs

Scotland is the famous home of so many inventions of the modern world, from the steam engine to the more recent wave-powered electrical generator.

But scientists from the University of Boston and the University of Sheffield have discovered a much earlier pioneer from Scotland. What might be the earliest multicellular organism!

Although the Scottish can’t quite claim credit for that as state boundaries are a totally made up human thing.

The ball-shaped micro-fossils were found in lake sediment from Loch Torridan and measures a miniscule 0.03mm in diameter. At around 1 billion years old, scientists believe that they may be the oldest fossils on record casting doubt on the theory that life began in the seas.

The oldest single cell microbe fossils are around 3.7 billion years old, but there has been difficulty finding the ‘missing link’ as life on earth jumped from single to multi cell existence.

This bodes well for the various rovers on the surface of Mars as they take sediment from the bottom of long since dried up lakes.

So much so that at Crab Museum, we are stating on record, that there is life outside of Earth. Humans might not find it today, or tomorrow, or even in the next hundred years - but we’re willing to bet £1,000,000 it’s out there.

You heard it here first!