Close-up picture of a core sample (IMAGE) GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung Caption Close-up picture of a core sample: The oldest samples are drill core samples from the 1.6-billion-year-old McArthur Basin in Northern Australia. This is among the oldest biomarker samples known to date and contains the information about primary production by photosynthetic organisms at that time. Credit Photo: Benjamin Nettersheim, MARUM University of Bremen Usage Restrictions None License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.