Porphyrins in Upper Jurassic source rocks and correlations with other source rock descriptors

Porphyrin as an Ideal Biomarker in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

“…Mass spectrometry with soft ionization techniques (e.g., MALDI-ToF or ESI-MS; Ebdon et al, 1994;Huseby et al, 1996;Peng et al, 1992a;Van Berkel et al, 1993) preserves the tetrapyrrolic ring structure of porphyrin-based molecules during desorption and ionization, which results in spectra dominated by characteristic molecular ion peaks that facilitate spectral interpretation. In Fig.…”

“…1). Subsequent geochemical research has led to a large body of literature dedicated to extraction methodologies, structure identification, and the distribution and diagenetic transformation pathways of various geoporphyrins (Baker and Palmer, 1978;Callot and Ocampo, 2000) found in crude oil shale, coal, bitumen, and other marine sediments (Eckardt et al, 1991;Foster et al, 2002;Gibbison et al, 1995;Huseby et al, 1996;Ocampo et al, 1992;Sheshina, 1955, 1962;Sundararaman and Boreham, 1991;Tuross and Dillehay, 1995;Van Berkel et al, 1991).…”

Recent Aqueous Environments in Martian Impact Craters: An Astrobiological Perspective

“…This process preserves microbes and their biomolecular signatures on Earth in stromatolitic fossils >2.5 Gya (Golubic and Seong-Joo 1999, Schopf 2000, Moldowan and Jacobson 2000. Their pigments, especially early porphyrins (Mulkidjanian and Junge 1997) that are recalcitrant moieties of chlorophylls, are recognizable in oil-bearing shales (Huseby et al 1996).…”

Proximal Analysis of Regolith Habitats and Protective Biomolecules in Situ by Laser Raman Spectroscopy: Overview of Terrestrial Antarctic Habitats and Mars Analogs

“…The UV sunscreen scytonemin and fossil microbial carotenoids such as okenone may be among fossil pigments that could indicate the presence of former cyanobacterial growth in diverse Earth or martian habitats (Overmann et al 1993, Leavitt et al 1997. Chlorophyll is also evident in Raman spectra (Russell et al 1998) and its central moiety, porphyrin, is so recalcitrant so that it remains recogniz- able after >180 Ma in Jurassic shales (Huseby et al 1996). This is a comparatively short period of time relative to the putative third hydrological Epoch 1.5 BP (Table I).…”

“…If burial was combined with freezing in permafrost and subsequent further deposition of wind-borne debris, it is possible that their residual biomolecules and associated mineral trace fossils (Friedmann and Weed 1987) will have been preserved. This phenomenon is well known on Earth as evidenced by the preservation in oilbearing shales of porphyrins that are derivatives of chlorophyll from ancient photosynthetic organisms (Huseby et al 1996). Ancient microbes and pigments are found preserved in permafrost for up to 3 Ma (Vorobyova et al 1997).…”