Geobiology of the late Paleoproterozoic Duck Creek Formation, Western Australia

Wilson, Jonathan P.; Fischer, Woodward W.; Johnston, David T.; Knoll, Andrew H.; Grotzinger, J. P.; Walter, Malcolm R.; McNaughton, Neal J.; Simon, Mel; Abelson, John; Schrag, Daniel P.; Summons, Roger E.; Allwood, Abigail; Andres, Miriam S.; Gammon, Crystal; Garvin, Jessica; Rashby, Sky; Schweizer, Maia K.; Watters, W. A.

doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2010.02.019

Cited by 60 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…9.12). We did not, however, observe the deposition of BIFs, and except for some minor occurrences (Bekker et al, 2010;Wilson et al, 2010), BIFs are absent from the geologic record for the next billion years, as mentioned above. Therefore, while ferruginous conditions are observed in deep marine waters, the Fe(II) concentrations appear to be insufficiently high to promote BIF deposition.…”

Section: Mo Isotope Proxymentioning

confidence: 55%

The Iron Biogeochemical Cycle Past and Present

Raiswell¹,

Canfield²

2012

GeochemPersp

565

445

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Section: Mo Isotope Proxymentioning

confidence: 55%

The Iron Biogeochemical Cycle Past and Present

Raiswell¹,

Canfield²

2012

GeochemPersp

565

445

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“…The Paleoproterozoic mid-Wyloo Group Duck Creek Formation, overlain conformably in its northern reaches by the June Hill Volcanics and capped to the southwest by strata of the Ashburton Formation, is a 1,000-m-thick sedimentary carbonate platform succession overlying siltstones of the McGrath Formation that disconformably overlie the Neoarchean−Paleoproterozoic Mount Bruce Supergroup (18). The age of the Duck Creek Formation is bracketed by a 2,209 ± 15 Ma U-Pb date on underlying volcanics of the Cheela Springs Basalt and a 1,795 ± 7 Ma U-Pb date on the overlying June Hill Volcanics (4).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis

Schopf

Kudryavtsev

Walter

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The recent discovery of a deep-water sulfur-cycling microbial biota in the ∼2.3-Ga Western Australian Turee Creek Group opened a new window to life's early history. We now report a second such subseafloor-inhabiting community from the Western Australian ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation. Permineralized in cherts formed during and soon after the 2.4- to 2.2-Ga “Great Oxidation Event,” these two biotas may evidence an opportunistic response to the mid-Precambrian increase of environmental oxygen that resulted in increased production of metabolically useable sulfate and nitrate. The marked similarity of microbial morphology, habitat, and organization of these fossil communities to their modern counterparts documents exceptionally slow (hypobradytelic) change that, if paralleled by their molecular biology, would evidence extreme evolutionary stasis.

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“…Filaments or stalks coated with Fe oxyhydroxides have been reported in chert layers of the 1.89 Ga Gunflint IF 3,19,45 , in the 1.88 Ga Frere IF 46 , in the 1.88 Ga Sokoman IF 47 , in the 1.8 Ga Duck Creek IF 48,49 , and in the 1.7 Ga IF of the Jerome District, AZ 50 . The absence of twisted stalks in IF older than 1.89 Ga has been proposed as evidence that stalk-forming communities did not exist at that time 19,51 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental diagenesis of organo-mineral structures formed by microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria

et al. 2015

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Twisted stalks are organo-mineral structures produced by some microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria at O 2 concentrations as low as 3 mM. The presence of these structures in rocks having experienced a diagenetic history could indicate microbial Fe(II)-oxidizing activity as well as localized abundance of oxygen at the time of sediment deposition. Here we use spectroscopy and analytical microscopy to evaluate if-and what kind of-transformations occur in twisted stalks through experimental diagenesis. Unique mineral textures appear on stalks as temperature and pressure conditions increase. Haematite and magnetite form from ferrihydrite at 170°C-120 MPa. Yet the twisted morphology of the stalks, and the organic matrix, mainly composed of long-chain saturated aliphatic compounds, are preserved at 250°C-140 MPa. Our results suggest that iron minerals might play a role in maintaining the structural and chemical integrity of stalks under diagenetic conditions and provide spectroscopic signatures for the search of ancient life in the rock record.

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Geobiology of the late Paleoproterozoic Duck Creek Formation, Western Australia

Cited by 60 publications

References 47 publications

The Iron Biogeochemical Cycle Past and Present

The Iron Biogeochemical Cycle Past and Present

Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis

Experimental diagenesis of organo-mineral structures formed by microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria

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