Discovery of eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea split.

[Royston]

Please take a look at the Science Daily article below....

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070820175435.htm

 

from the article...

 

a team of scientists present direct evidence that the three domains of life coexisted at least as long as 2.7 billion years ago

 

The discovery came from chemical examination of shale samples, loaded with oily lipid remains of archaea found in a deep Canadian gold mine near Timmins, Ontario, about 400 miles north of Toronto.

 

When they analyzed a sample, Kenig said, they were able to pull apart its complex mixture of molecular fossils, and found it was "essentially made of archaea-derived lipids."

 

"Now we are sure the three domains of life were well separated and evolving (independently) by 2.7 billion years ago," said Kenig.

 

The finding broadens the known geographic reach of archaea during this time period, adding proof that the ancient organisms existed both in sedimentary environments and in subsurface hydrothermal settings

 

I thought this was awesome, one of the hurdles of pinning down key events of early life on earth is obviously piecing together the time periods of events, so this is definitely a significant piece of the jigsaw.