The oldest green algae on record is 1 billion years old

Feb 25, 2020
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Please note that "algae" is a plural noun; the singular of "algae" is "alga". So "algae" takes a plural verb: "algae are" and "algae were", not "algae is" etc. Grammar matters, and accurate names matter, especially in science writing.

If it matters, I am a Ph.D. biologist with a long University teaching and research career focused on evolution, ecology and behavior -- and long experience editing other people's journal articles, etc. <G>.
 
Feb 25, 2020
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Interesting, but saw nothing about how they determined the age of the algae. Hopefully, we have not returned to the circular reasoning of "the rocks determine the age of the fossils, the fossils determine the age of the rocks". The assumptions, the assumptions ...
I assume It says in the journal paper, If you care to pay a few bucks to read it:
 
Feb 25, 2020
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I assume It says in the journal paper, If you care to pay a few bucks to read it:
From the abstract: "This model, however, has not been rigorously tested with palaeontological data because of the scarcity of Proterozoic chlorophyte fossils." Also from the abstract: "described", "interpreted", "suggesting" and "nearly a billion years ago, much earlier than previously thought." Just saying.
 
From the abstract: "This model, however, has not been rigorously tested with palaeontological data because of the scarcity of Proterozoic chlorophyte fossils." Also from the abstract: "described", "interpreted", "suggesting" and "nearly a billion years ago, much earlier than previously thought." Just saying.
"Although there are no reliable radiometric ages directly from the Nanfen Formation, the youngest population of detrital zircons from the underlying Diaoyutai Formation is dated at 1,056 ± 22 Ma (ref. 25), and a diabase sill emplaced in the overlying Qiaotou Formation gives a zircon secondary-ion mass spectrometry U-Pb age of 947.8 ± 7.4 Ma (ref. 26). Hence, the depositional age of the Nanfen Formation is constrained between about 1,056 and 947.8 Ma, consistent with numerous other radiometric ages from the Xihe, Wuxingshan and Jinxian groups (Extended Data Fig. 1; see also Age constraints in Supplementary Information). "
They only use that language because science never has 100% certainty. Sure, the rock are dating the fossils, but molecular analysis is dating the rocks.
 

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