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Era

Paleoarchean

Archean

The second era of the Archean eon, spanning about 3.6 to 3.2 billion years ago. The earliest identifiable fossils in the geologic record, stromatolites preserved in roughly 3.48 billion year old sandstone, date to within this era, among the oldest direct evidence of life on Earth. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Rank
Era 1
Start (Million Years Ago)
3600 1
End (Million Years Ago)
3200 1
Key Event
The earliest identifiable fossils consist of stromatolites found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone. 1
Connections

Anticipated By

Eoarchean, Eras

Has Geologic Rank

Geologic Era, Concepts

In Discipline

Geochronology, Disciplines

Precursor To

Mesoarchean, Eras
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Archean
Wikipedia
  • Lead section
    The Archean (IPA: ar-KEE-ən, also spelled Archaean or Archæan), in older sources sometimes called the Archaeozoic, is the second of the four geologic eons of Earth's history, preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic and the Phanerozoic.
  • Article text
    The earliest identifiable fossils consist of stromatolites, which are microbial mats formed in shallow water by cyanobacteria. The earliest stromatolites are found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia.
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