Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn
Date of Birth :
1915-30-06
Place of Birth :
New York
Country :
United States
Field of Expertise :
Geology and Paleontology
Educational background :
Graduate Degree in Archaeology from Miami University.
Ph.D in Anthropology from Harvard University.
Acheivements / Contributions :
Barghoorn is best known for discovering in South African rocks fossil evidence of life that is at least 3.4 billion years old. These fossils show that life was present on Earth comparatively soon after the Late Heavy Bombardment (about 3.8 billion years ago).
His work on the early evolution of flowering plants, vegetational changes during the Pleistocene ice age, and the origins of coal added much to the field of paleontology
His greatest scientific achievement was his pioneering study of early life.
In the 1950's, Dr. Barghoorn discovered fossilized colonies of blue-green algae and aquatic fungi near Lake Superior. Those algae were 2 billion years old.
Bibliography :
Paleobotanical studies of the fishweir and associated deposits (I̲n Johnson, Frederick. The Boylston Street fishweir II),Marine fungi: Their taxonomy and biology .
