Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils.

Entrez PubMed: "We reinterpret the purported microfossil-like structure as secondary artefacts formed from amorphous graphite within multiple generations of metalliferous hydrothermal vein chert and volcanic glass. Although there is no support for primary biological morphology, a Fischer--Tropsch-type synthesis of carbon compounds and carbon isotopic fractionation is inferred for one of the oldest known hydrothermal systems on Earth."

Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils. Brasier MD, Green OR, Jephcoat AP, Kleppe AK, Van Kranendonk MJ, Lindsay JF, Steele A, Grassineau NV. Nature. 2002 Mar 7;416(6876):76-81.
Comment in: Nature. 2002 Mar 7;416(6876):28.