# What is the oldest thing to be found? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599 "2006-04-14T00:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/1 "2006-04-14T00:09:23Z")
Discounting rocks (unless they’ve been shaped into a tool). Fossils are fine. Just anything that shows some evidence of life, really. What’s the oldest thing that’s been found? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/2 "2006-04-14T00:12:45Z")
If fossils are allowed, this is the ultimate winner. “The cyanobacteria have an extensive fossil record. The oldest known fossils, in fact, are cyanobacteria from Archaean rocks of western Australia, dated 3.5 billion years old. This may be somewhat surprising, since the oldest rocks are only a little older: 3.8 billion years old!” [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanofr.html](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanofr.html) ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/3 "2006-04-14T00:37:12Z")
Well I guess those rocks would win, then. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/4 "2006-04-14T00:50:35Z")
[sub]looks around, sees question was answered[/sub] OK then, what is the oldest thing to be lost? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/5 "2006-04-14T00:54:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > cyanobacteria from Archaean rocks of western Australia, dated 3.5 billion years old. This may be somewhat surprising, since the oldest rocks are only a little older: 3.8 billion years old!" If peculiar isotope ratios are allowed, the graphite microparticles in Greenland’s Itsaq gneiss formation provide [evidence of earthly life dating back 3.65 to 3.85 billion years.](http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=293) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/6 "2006-04-14T00:55:47Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > [sub]looks around, sees question was answered[/sub] > > OK then, what is the oldest thing to be lost? The fossil bones of Peking Man (the name then given to specimens of what is now called Homo Erectus) were several hundred thousand years old. They vanished in the chaos of the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930s. Casts and photographs of the originals are still around but the actual bones themselves are gone. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/7 "2006-04-14T01:50:47Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > OK then, what is the oldest thing to be lost? The oldest rocks themselves. Although the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, the oldest known rocks are only about 3.9 billion years old (although tiny zircons have been found that were part of the oldest rocks that are possibly 4.4 billion years old). Also, the remains of the very oldest life forms, and their pre-life precursors, have also been lost. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/8 "2006-04-14T09:35:03Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > [sub]looks around, sees question was answered[/sub] > > OK then, what is the oldest thing to be lost? Fred Flintstones keys. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-thing-to-be-found/352599/9 "2006-04-14T13:19:46Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > [sub]looks around, sees question was answered[/sub] > > OK then, what is the oldest thing to be lost? We lost Grandma at the flea market once. She was a hundred and two!