Insanely old fossils found in Australia

If you're looking to feel small and insignificant, this is your lucky day. In a mindboggling discovery, scientists found bacteria that lived on Earth 3.49 billion years ago — just 1 billion years after the birth of the planet itself. The fossils were found in sedimentary rocks in the Pilbara region of Australia, and they're considered to be records of Earth's most ancient organisms. As records go, they're not incredible to look at. (They're just traces in rocks, rather than something substantial, like dinosaur bones.) Nevertheless, researchers consider this a noteworthy find. [Source]

Click to see more on msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.