1.75-billion-year-old fossils help explain how photosynthesis evolved

The oldest fossil evidence of photosynthesis has been found inside tiny cyanobacteria that lived around 1.75 billion years ago, 1.2 billion years earlier than the previous record-holder. The photosynthetic structures, known as thylakoids, were found inside fossilised Navifusa majensis. Cyanobacteria are thought to have triggered the Great Oxidation Event more than 2 billion years ago, which transformed Earth’s atmosphere.