Curious Minds "The Dawn of Life: new insights from the Rhynie Chert” by Dr. Sandy Hetherington, Edinburgh University

The Rhynie chert is a 407-million-year-old fossil deposit discovered over a century ago close to the village of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire. The fossils from the Rhynie chert preserve evidence of an early terrestrial ecosystem frozen in time complete with plants, animals, fungi and a host of microbial life. Research on the Rhynie chert has provided unprecedented details of early life on land, cementing the global importance of this fossil site. Sandy will provide an overview of this world-famous fossil locality and describe how new techniques are allowing us to characterise and understand the diversity of life at this crucial point in Earth history.