Archean coastal-plain paleosols and life on land

Retallack, Gregory J.; Krinsley, David H.; Fischer, Robert E.; Razink, Joshua J.; Langworthy, Kurt

doi:10.1016/j.gr.2016.08.003

Cited by 39 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 150 publications

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“…We hypothesized that N outputs from BSCs to subsurface soil and hydrogeological system were delivered to the oceanic basin after weathering, without further remobilization. This first-order hypothesis probably tends to overestimate N transport to the ocean but is consistent with Archean BSCs developing in coastal habitats close to oceanic basins 31 , 32 and with a reduced soil biological demand. The results are presented in Table 1 and Fig.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 65%

“…The oldest direct evidence for fossil BSCs comes from the 1.2 Ga mid-Proterozoic Apache Supergroup in the Dripping Springs Formation of Arizona, including sedimentological evidence for microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS) and cyanobacteria-like organic microfossils 30 . But, indirect evidence of BSCs developing on Archean coastal plain paleosols date them back to 3.0 Ga 31 . Tufted microbial mats inhabiting coastal habitats have also been described within the Moodies Group (South Africa) at 3.2 Ga 32 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Possible nitrogen fertilization of the early Earth Ocean by microbial continental ecosystems

Thomazo¹,

Couradeau²,

García-Pichel³

2018

Nat Commun

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While significant efforts have been invested in reconstructing the early evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere–ocean–biosphere biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, the potential role of an early continental contribution by a terrestrial, microbial phototrophic biosphere has been largely overlooked. By transposing to the Archean nitrogen fluxes of modern topsoil communities known as biological soil crusts (terrestrial analogs of microbial mats), whose ancestors might have existed as far back as 3.2 Ga ago, we show that they could have impacted the evolution of the nitrogen cycle early on. We calculate that the net output of inorganic nitrogen reaching the Precambrian hydrogeological system could have been of the same order of magnitude as that of modern continents for a range of inhabited area as small as a few percent of that of present day continents. This contradicts the assumption that before the Great Oxidation Event, marine and continental biogeochemical nitrogen cycles were disconnected.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible nitrogen fertilization of the early Earth Ocean by microbial continental ecosystems

Thomazo¹,

Couradeau²,

García-Pichel³

2018

Nat Commun

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“…Actinobacteria, which weather soil and volcanic glass (Cockell et al, 2013), are closely related to Cyanobacteria (Battistuzzi et al, 2004;Bern and Goldberg, 2005;Hedges, 2008, 2009;Abby et al, 2012). Retallack et al (2016) describe a 3.0 Ga paleosol formed by such a community with purple sulfur bacteria and actinobacteria. It was near the beach.…”

Section: Geological and Geochemical Constraints On Life 1207mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

Sleep

2018

Astrobiology

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The traditional tree of life from molecular biology with last universal common ancestor (LUCA) branching into bacteria and archaea (though fuzzy) is likely formally valid enough to be a basis for discussion of geological processes on the early Earth. Biologists infer likely properties of nodal organisms within the tree and, hence, the environment they inhabited. Geologists both vet tenuous trees and putative origin of life scenarios for geological and ecological reasonability and conversely infer geological information from trees. The latter approach is valuable as geologists have only weakly constrained the time when the Earth became habitable and the later time when life actually existed to the long interval between ∼4.5 and ∼3.85 Ga where no intact surface rocks are known. With regard to vetting, origin and early evolution hypotheses from molecular biology have recently centered on serpentinite settings in marine and alternatively land settings that are exposed to ultraviolet sunlight. The existence of these niches on the Hadean Earth is virtually certain. With regard to inferring geological environment from genomics, nodes on the tree of life can arise from true bottlenecks implied by the marine serpentinite origin scenario and by asteroid impact. Innovation of a very useful trait through a threshold allows the successful organism to quickly become very abundant and later root a large clade. The origin of life itself, that is, the initial Darwinian ancestor, the bacterial and archaeal roots as free-living cellular organisms that independently escaped hydrothermal chimneys above marine serpentinite or alternatively from shallow pore-water environments on land, the Selabacteria root with anoxygenic photosynthesis, and the Terrabacteria root colonizing land are attractive examples that predate the geological record. Conversely, geological reasoning presents likely events for appraisal by biologists. Asteroid impacts may have produced bottlenecks by decimating life. Thermophile roots of bacteria and archaea as well as a thermophile LUCA are attractive.

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“…Aqueous environment of the black chert deposition was suggested from sedimentary structures such as parallel to cross lamination, stratigraphic relationship with other lithologies such as carbonate, sandstone, shale, volcaniclastics and banded iron‐formation and trace element characteristics (Allwood, Kamber, Walter, Burch, & Kanik, ; Sugahara et al., Sugitani et al., , , , Sugitani, Mimura, Takeuchi, Yamaguchi, et al., , ; Walsh, ). As to the depositional environment of the Farrel Quartzite, Retallack, Krinsley, Fischer, Razink, and Langworthy () claimed that the fossil‐bearing black chert was paleosol. However, the authors examined black chert layer that was not identical to that from which microfossils were originally discovered and overlooked previously presented sedimentary, lithostratigraphic and geochemical features that are consistent with aquatic origin of host black cherts (Sugitani, Van Kranendonk, Oehler, House, & Walter, ).…”

Section: Habitats Lifestyle and Taxonomy Of Lenticular Microbesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Archean planktonic mode of life: Implications from fluid dynamics of lenticular microfossils

et al. 2018

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Lenticular, and commonly flanged, microfossils in 3.0–3.4 Ga sedimentary deposits in Western Australia and South Africa are unusually large (20–80 μm across), robust, and widespread in space and time. To gain insight into the ecology of these organisms, we performed simulations of fluid dynamics of virtual cells mimicking lenticular forms of variable sizes, oblateness, flange presence, and flange thickness. Results demonstrate that (a) the flange reduces sedimentation velocity, (b) this flange function works more effectively in larger cells, and (c) modest oblateness lowers sedimentation rate. These observations support interpretations that the lenticular microbes were planktonic—a lifestyle that could have been advantageous in an early Earth harsh environment including violent volcanic activities, repeated asteroid impacts, and relatively high UV‐radiation. Although the robustness of these organisms could have provided additional protection on the early Earth, this architecture may have impeded a planktonic lifestyle by increasing cell density. However, our data suggest that this disadvantage could have been compensated by enlargement of cell volume, which could have enhanced the ability of the flange to slow sedimentation rate, especially if coupled with vacuolation. The results of this simulation study may help to explain the unique morphology and unusually large size of these Archean microfossils.

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Archean coastal-plain paleosols and life on land

Cited by 39 publications

References 150 publications

Possible nitrogen fertilization of the early Earth Ocean by microbial continental ecosystems

Possible nitrogen fertilization of the early Earth Ocean by microbial continental ecosystems

Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

Early Archean planktonic mode of life: Implications from fluid dynamics of lenticular microfossils

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