Oldest Complex Organic Molecules Found in Ancient Fossils

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Fossils of sea creatures known as crinoids which lived 350 million years ago. Photo by Kevin Fitzsimons courtesy of Ohio State University
Fossils of sea creatures known as crinoids, which lived 350 million years ago. Photo by Kevin Fitzsimons, courtesy of Ohio State University

Ohio State University geologists have isolated complex organic molecules from 350-million-year-old fossil sea creatures -- the oldest such molecules yet found. The molecules may have functioned as pigments, but the study offers a much bigger finding: an entirely new way to track how species evolved.


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