Purported 3,465-million-year-old microfossils from Australia have been the subject of considerable debate. A method to distinguish between pristine fossils, mineral artefacts and subsequent microbial contamination will aid the search for ancient biogenic material.
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Corcoran, P. Magnifying ancient microstructures. Nature Geosci 2, 606–607 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo611
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo611