Signs of life in India dating back 2.5 billion years found by IIT-Kharagpur researchers

Kharagpur: In what could possibly become a historic breakthrough, researchers from IIT-Kharagpur have managed to find evidence of life in India dating back at least 2.5 billion years.

According to a Times of India report, the signs of life were found in the form of microbial cells in the Deccan region of the country.

It took nearly four years for the team to find the microbes at a depth of 3 kilometers. The researchers said the find marks the beginning of a time known as the Great Oxidation Eventwhen oxygen entered the Earth’s surface.

The findings have now been published on Scientific Reports: Nature, an online journal from the publishers of Nature

Led by Pinaki Sar, the team of researchers has now managed to stun the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The microbes, which were identified as bacteria, date back to a time when the earth’s crust was unstable.