The nominated property is made up of two groups, the fossiliferous site of Moulendé and the nuclear pile of Bangombé, 20 km apart. These elements are located in geological formations dating back 2.1 billion years in the Francevillian basin, in the south-east of Gabon.
The fossiliferous deposit of Moulendé is located near the town of Franceville. This site, unique in the world, reveals the first complex and organized multicellular fossil organisms, called Gabonionta. These ancient macroscopic organisms living in colonies have been preserved in ocean sediments dated to 2.1 billion years ago. The particularity of this site also lies in the richness of its biodiversity with about fifteen morphotypes. This site is a unique window on the history of life. These discoveries challenged our knowledge of the emergence of complex life by shifting the cursor of the appearance of multicellular life by more than 1.4 billion years.
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