Fossil known as oldest form of life and T Rex tooth to be auctioned
IT IS the oldest lifeform on Earth and it could be yours for just £1,000.
Auction house Christie’s is selling a 3.48billion-year-old stromatolite fossil as part of an extraordinary collection of natural specimens, that includes meteorites, dinosaur teeth and the partial skull of a triceratops.
The stromatolite, which dates from the early Archean, when life was just getting going on Earth, is the fossilised remains of colonies of microscopic photosynthesising organisms called cyanobacteria.
It was found in an area of ancient rock known as the Dresser Formation in western Australia.
James Hyslop, head of science and natural history department at Christie’s, said: “The Dresser Formation stromatolites are an extraordinary 3.48billion years old, and are the oldest form of life that you can find.
“In a sense they are our ultimate ancestors. They lived as mats of microbial organisms, slowly adding a layer at a time to form distinctive domes.
“They reached their peak 1.2billion years ago, and their relatives can still be seen in a few locations on earth, such as Shark Bay in Australia.”
The sale also includes a Triceratops skull, with an estimate of between £300,000 to £500,000, which was discovered on private land in Montana, US in 2017.
Other highlights include a Pterosaur fossil dating from around 145 million years ago, as well as two teeth from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. A large Triceratops horn is also being sold with an estimate of between £30,000 and £50,000 as well as a length of rock containing the fossil footprints of two bidpedal dinosaurs from the early Jurassic, around 200million years ago.
A fossil starfish plaque dating from the Ordovician – around 485 to 443 million years ago – is also featured, as well as several teeth from a megalodon, the giant shark which terrorised the oceans around 16million years ago.
Experts have also discovered an enormous block of fossil scallops dating from around 16 million years ago.
Mr Hyslop added: “It’s the most impressive I’ve ever seen. When it arrived at the warehouse I couldn’t believe the scale of it.
“Each shell has been painstakingly excavated from the host rock to reveal its life-like detail, some even preserve the barnacles that hitched a ride on the scallops over 16million years ago.
“It is probably the fossil in the sale that I covet most, I’d live with it and admire it daily very happily.”
The Sculpted by Nature: Fossils, Minerals and Meteorites auction is running online until May 24.