Scientists from the University of Waterloo studying how rubies are formed discovered the residue of a microorganism inside a 2.5 billion-year-old gemstone. The team found a ruby that contained ...

We know the earliest life that appeared on the surface of our planet wasn't complex life as we know it today. Rather, ancient life would've been much simpler than humans, plants, and various animals.

While analyzing some of the world’s oldest coloured gemstones, researchers from the University of Waterloo discovered carbon residue that was once ancient life, encased in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby.

Traces of life were discovered in minerals formed long ago, 2.5 billion years ago, when eukaryotes were not born. This is the first time that a trace of life has been found in a ruby, and research has ...