#  Andrew Knoll and Chinese Team Discover Complex Life Formed Billion Years Earlier than Thought 

 





May 17, 2016

 

 

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**Andrew Knoll** and a Chinese team discovered centimetre-scale life forms, preserved in mudstones from the Yanshan area in north China, are dated to 1.56 billion years ago. The findings, published in [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160506/ncomms11500/full/ncomms11500.html), say the fossils show complex life on Earth formed more than 1.5 billion years ago, much earlier than was previously thought. [BBC News Story](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36303051).



 

 

 



 

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