On Oct. 19, 2015, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) geochemists announced evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago – 300 million years earlier than previous research suggested.

The discovery of biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon crystal indicated that life may have begun shortly after the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.