Oldest Complex Organic Molecules Found in Ancient Fossils (IMAGE)

Ohio State University

Oldest Complex Organic Molecules Found in Ancient Fossils

Caption

Ohio State University geologists William Ausich (left), professor of earth sciences, and Christina O'Malley, a doctoral student, and their colleagues isolated the oldest complex organic compounds found in a fossil. They found the compounds in 350-million-year-old fossils of sea creatures known as crinoids; here, O'Malley holds a modern crinoid.

Credit

Photo by Kevin Fitzsimons, courtesy of Ohio State University.

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