Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures

Abstract

. (2016). Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures. Nature, 537 (7621), 535-538. Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures AbstractBiological activity is a major factor in Earth's chemical cycles, including facilitating CO2 sequestration and providing climate feedbacks. Thus a key question in Earth's evolution is when did life arise and impact hydrosphere-atmosphere-lithosphere chemical cycles? Until now, evidence for the oldest life on Earth focused on debated stable isotopic signatures of 3,800-3,700 million year (Myr)-old metamorphosed sedimentary rocks and minerals1,2 from the Isua supracrustal belt (ISB), southwest Greenland3. Here we report evidence for ancient life from a newly exposed outcrop of 3,700-Myr-old metacarbonate rocks in the ISB that contain 1-4-cm-high stromatolites-macroscopically layered structures produced by microbial communities. The ISB stromatolites grew in a shallow marine environment, as indicated by seawater-like rare-earth element plus yttrium trace element signatures of the metacarbonates, and by interlayered detrital sedimentary rocks with cross-lamination and storm-wave generated breccias. The ISB stromatolites predate by 220 Myr the previous most convincing and generally accepted multidisciplinary evidence for oldest life remains in the 3,480-Myrold Dresser Formation of the Pilbara Craton, Australia4,5. The presence of the ISB stromatolites demonstrates the establishment of shallow marine carbonate production with biotic CO2 sequestration by 3,700 million years ago (Ma), near the start of Earth's sedimentary record. A sophistication of life by 3,700 Ma is in accord with genetic molecular clock studies placing life's origin in the Hadean eon (>4,000 Ma)6. Keywords emergence, life, shown, discovery, rapid, 3, structures, 700, million, year, old, microbial Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication DetailsNutman, A. P., Bennett, V. C., Friend, C. R. L., Van Kranendonk, M. J. & Chivas, A. R. (2016). Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures. Nature, 537 (7621), 535-538. 127Low deformation lacuna site 'C' preserves a 30 cm thick breccia lens in dolomite-rich 128 metasedimentary rocks is associated with dolostone (Fig. 2d) 139The barium-rich character of some layers of the dolomitic succession (up to 1 wt% BaO) now 140represented by halogen-rich barian phlogopite ± barian muscovite ± hyalophane (Extended and La anomalies and low total REE contents (Fig. 3, Extended Data Table 2 and Fig. 4). 149This REE+Y signature is preserved in even the most Ti-Al rich 'marly' layer (analysis A-2 Palaeoarchaean stromatolites (Fig. 1). 179(ii) The presence of originally low temperature dolomite, which requires microbial 180 activity for precipitation 24,25 .

Iron formations: A global record of Neoarchaean to Palaeoproterozoic environmental history

“…(1) Stromatolitic assemblages in the 2.72 Ga Tumbiana Formation, Western Australia, are presumed to have been constructed by photoautotrophs that utilised oxygenic photosynthesis (Buick, 1992 (Nutman et al, 2016), which the authors ascribed to an autotrophic carbon-fixing metabolism. However, the construction of stromatolite-like structures by the anoxygenic phototroph Rhodopseudomonas palustris (Bosak et al, 2007) challenges the notion that stromatolites uniquely mark cyanobacterial presence in the geologic record and that microfossil metabolism can be inferred from morphology alone.…”

What do we really know about early diagenesis of non-marine carbonates?

“…In parallel with the challenge to define and recognize primary fabrics, the search for criteria to distinguish sedimentary precipitates that result solely from physicochemical processes and those that formed in relation to biota is raised (Freytet and Verrecchia, 1998;Sugitani et al, 2007;Oehler et al, 2009;Wacey, 2009;Jones, 2010;Knoll et al, 2013;Mettraux et al, 2015;Nutman et al, 2016). Early diagenesis may strongly complicate the determination of the biogenecity of a fabric (Brasier et al, 2015).…”

Biofilm formation and toxin production provide a fitness advantage in mixed colonies of environmental yeast isolates

“…Biofilms also protect microbes from antibiotics and can therefore cause persistent infections (Costerton, Stewart, & Greenberg, 1999). The oldest fossils on earth are microbial mats; thus, it appears that there have been biofilms since microbes first evolved (Nutman, Bennett, Friend, Van Kranendonk, & Chivas, 2016). …”