Evidence found at Barberton confirms theory of life on earth as early as about 3.4 billion years ago

News 24 announced that geologists Michael M. Tice and Professor Donald R. Lowe of Stanford University in the United States, assisted locally by South African geologist Nicolas Beukes, found evidence of life on earth as early as about 3.4 billion years ago. This discovery was made studying fossilised micro-organisms taken from 3.8-billion-year-old sedimentary rock at Barberton, Mpumalanga.  The remarkable find was announced on 30 September in the science journal 'Nature'. This discovery reconfirmed an earlier theory, ditched by scientists in the past that these life forms relied on sunlight to live. Barberton is 1 of only 2 known locations worldwide of rocks formed in the shallow waters of an open ocean system more than 3 billion years ago - long before humans began inhabiting the earth (approximately 2 million years ago).