Combined micro-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy of Proterozoic acritarchs: A new approach to Palaeobiology

Marshall, Craig P.; Javaux, Emmanuelle; Knoll, Andrew H.; Walter, Malcolm R.

doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2005.05.006

Cited by 170 publications

(136 citation statements)

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“…Leiosphaerids are conventionally interpreted as cysts, i.e. dormant/reproductive stages in the life cycle of microalgae, and this is well supported by the presence of an excystment opening, comparative morphology, recalcitrant cell wall and their abundance (Vidal and Ford, 1985;Vidal and Moczydłowska, 1997;Butterfield et al, 1994;Javaux et al, 2004;Marshall et al, 2005Marshall et al, , 2006. They show a random and widespread distribution in shallow marine sediments, which is consistent with a planktic mode of life and accumulation of resting cysts in seafloor sediments across shelves and open-marine facies.…”

Section: Biological Affinities and Life Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Leiosphaeridia crassa, another species in the Lublin association, also possesses the multilayered wall ultrastructure, with a possible although partially preserved TLS observed in specimens from the 1.4-1.5 Ga Roper Group in Australia, and an affinity to green algae (Javaux et al, 2004). Microchemical analysis of three species of Leiosphaeridia (L. crassa, L. jacutica and L. tenuissima) from the same Australian material showed similar chemical composition of their wall (Marshall et al, 2005). Although inconclusive with respect to their systematic relationships, it may suggest that a common biochemical composition (aliphatic sterol algaenan) derives from the same biosynthetic pathway in genetically closely related organisms within the Class Chlorophyceae.…”

Section: Biological Affinities and Life Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 87%

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New records of late Ediacaran microbiota from Poland

Moczydłowska

2008

Precambrian Research

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a b s t r a c tNew records of organic-walled microfossils, including cyanobacteria, phytoplankton (certain acritarchs) and some microbiota of unknown biological affinities, are reported from the late Ediacaran Włodawa Formation in the Łopiennik IG-1 borehole, Poland. The microfossil association consists mostly of known species, which originated prior to the Cryogenian Period, evidence that these microorganisms survived the Neoproterozoic glacial epochs. The longevity of most of the species is extended herein to ca. 545 Ma. One species is new but described as gen. et sp. indet., because only a single specimen is available. Although the microfossils represent both prokaryotic and eukaryotic groups of organisms, and benthic and planktic modes of life, all, with the exception of Valkyria, are photoautotrophic aerobes. Metabolic processes of nutrition, respiration and reproductive cycles, and ecologic habitats of these biota and the evolutionary lineages to which they belong are analyzed with respect to the basic requirements needed to survive prolonged periods of environmental perturbation.All recorded here cyanobacteria are benthic microbial mat-dwellers, requiring ample water and regular oxygen supply and sun light for their metabolism. Planktic species of Leiosphaeridia studied here are considered to be green algae (chlorophyceans), forming resting cysts and alternating sexual/vegetative generations in their life cycle. They also required habitats of well-oxygenated open water in the photic zone and periodic access to bottom sediment (to rest the cyst) in order to survive the glacial epochs, as they evidently did. It is argued that the natural habitats of all these biota must have been preserved and ecologically functional throughout the Cryogenian Period, and have been robust enough to sustain viable populations and genetic stocks of at least some evolutionary lineages known at the time. This is a primary constraint imposed by contemporaneous marine biosphere on the Earth System model, which can be accepted among hypothetical versions of the Snowball Earth hypotheses based on sedimentological, geochemical, physical and other geological records. The Slushball Earth model, or comparable, is thus favoured over strict Snowball Earth model because it reconciles the habitable conditions with other envisaged geo-and physical conditions during the period.

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Section: Biological Affinities and Life Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Biological Affinities and Life Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 87%

New records of late Ediacaran microbiota from Poland

Moczydłowska

2008

Precambrian Research

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“…Although searching for distinct geochemical precursor signatures has been carried out in various Proterozoic geological formations (Arouri et al, 1999;Arouri et al, 2000;Javaux et al, 2004;Marshall et al, 2005;Igisu et al, 2009), these results are the first distinguishing such signatures at the scale of various organic-walled microfossil types within Precambrian rocks. Indeed, studying morphologically-distinct leiospheres from the Mesoproterozoic Roper Group (Javaux et al, 2004, Marshall et al, 2005 did not find any difference in their geochemical composition using Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. In the Liulaobei microfossil assemblage, morphological differences between microfossil types are more easily recognizable, which may have favored the distinction of various geochemical signatures.…”

Section: Taphonomic and Precursor Geochemical Signatures As Revealed mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can NanoSIMS probe quantitatively the geochemical composition of ancient organic-walled microfossils? A case study from the early Neoproterozoic Liulaobei Formation

Delarue

Robert

Tartèse

et al. 2018

Precambrian Research

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Assessing the biogenicity of Precambrian putative remnants of life requires solid criteria. Among possible criteria, searching for evidence of pristine biological signatures and identifying various biological organic matter (OM) precursors in close association with microfossil morphology are of interest. Nano-scale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (NanoSIMS) can provide a quantitative geochemical proxy at the scale of the individual microfossil but its use has remained limited because of potential analytical biases related to matrix effects and microtopography that may result in inaccurate NanoSIMS-derived measurement. No study so far has assessed whether these potential analytical biases were strong enough to preclude any identification of pristine OM degradation products and of organic precursors in ancient sediments. In this study, we characterized the geochemical composition of organic-walled microfossils from the early Neoproterozoic Liulaobei Formation in North China using NanoSIMS. The 12 CH − / 12 C 2 − ionic ratio allows us to distinguish filament from spheroid acritarchs, revealing the co-occurrence of two distinct pristine OM signatures that differ by their H and/or aliphatic contents. In addition, NanoSIMS data show that morphological degradation was tightly linked to a loss of H and/or hydrogenated organic compounds in spheroid acritarchs. In contrast, in situ N/C atomic ratios are homogeneous across all organic-walled microfossils studied. Although highly coherent with Proterozoic N/C atomic ratios from the literature, such homogeneity may alternatively reflect (i) a similar N content for different organic precursors or (ii) an extensive homogenization related to early degradation. Overall, these data obtained on microfossils from the Proterozoic Liulaobei Formation are the first to demonstrate that the quantitative capability of NanoSIMS can be used to track ancient OM precursors and to probe the effects of degradation on pristine OM. These findings open up tremendous perspectives and put forward new criteria for assessing the biogenicity of the putative early traces of life found in Archean metasediments.

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“…In contrast, extant Halosphaera develop smoothly spheroidal phycomata that could easily be represented among leiosphaerid acritarchs in Proterozoic rocks (see Figure 6A Tappan 1980). Ultrastructural and microchemical studies (e.g., Javaux et al 2004;Marshall et al 2005) provide our best opportunity to test this hypothesis.…”

Section: The Geological Succession Of Primary Producers In the Oceansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In comparable fashion, continuing research on Protero-zoic and Paleozoic microfossils will need to stress wall ultrastructure (Arouri et al 1999(Arouri et al , 2000Talzyina 2000;Javaux et at. 2004) and microchemical analysis (e.g., FTIR, hydropyrolysis, x-ray and, perhaps, Raman spectroscopy; Love et al 1995;Schopf et al 2002a, b;Boyce et al 2003;Marshall et al, 2005) interpreted in light of corresponding analyses of living cells and younger, taxonomically unambiguous fossils.…”

Section: A Directions For Continuing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular biogeochemistry of modern and ancient marine microbes

Waldbauer¹

2010

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Biological activity has shaped the surface of the earth in numerous ways, but life's most pervasive and persistent global impact has been the secular oxidation of the surface environment. Through primary production -the biochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to synthesize biomass -large amounts of oxidants such as molecular oxygen, sulfate and ferric iron have accumulated in the ocean, atmosphere and crust, fundamentally altering the chemical environment of the earth's surface. This thesis addresses aspects of the role of marine microorganisms in driving this process. In the first section of the thesis, biomarkers (hydrocarbon molecular fossils) are used to investigate the early history of microbial diversity and biogeochemistry. Molecular fossils from the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa, document the presence in the oceans of a diverse microbiota, including eukaryotes, as well as oxygenic photosynthesis and aerobic biochemistry, by ca. 2.7Ga. Experimental study of the oxygen requirements of steroid biosynthesis suggests that sterane biomarkers in late Archean rocks are consistent with the persistence of microaerobic surface ocean environments long before the initial oxygenation of the atmosphere. In the second part, using Prochlorococcus (a marine cyanobacterium that is the most abundant primary producer on earth today) as a model system, we explored how microbes use the limited nutrient resources available in the marine environment to make the protein catalysts that enable primary production. Quantification of the Prochlorococcus proteome over the diel cell-division cycle reveals that protein abundances are distinct from transcript-level dynamics, and that small temporal shifts in enzyme levels can redirect metabolic fluxes. This thesis illustrates how molecular techniques can contribute to a systems-level understanding of biogeochemical processes, which will aid in reconstructing the past of, and predicting future change in, earth surface environments. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI have incurred many debts of gratitude and appreciation over the course of this work. None are greater than those to my advisors, Penny Chisholm and Roger Summons, who allowed and enabled me to pursue such a wide range of scientific interests and offered their help and advice every step of the way. I have been very lucky to have had the chance to learn so much during my Ph.D., and none of that would have been possible without their guidance and support.I have also had the great fortune to know and work with all the members of the Chisholm and Summons labs, who have made this an enjoyable and rewarding place to be. I am especially grateful to Laura Sherman for her skill and dedication in analyzing biomarkers in the late Archean cores -it was truly getting blood from a stone. I was lucky to collaborate with Sébastien Rodrigue, whose expertise and collegiality made the diel experiment even more fruitful than I could have hoped. IntroductionThe coevolution of life and earth surface environments is central to the history and functionin...

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Combined micro-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy of Proterozoic acritarchs: A new approach to Palaeobiology

Cited by 170 publications

References 54 publications

New records of late Ediacaran microbiota from Poland

New records of late Ediacaran microbiota from Poland

Can NanoSIMS probe quantitatively the geochemical composition of ancient organic-walled microfossils? A case study from the early Neoproterozoic Liulaobei Formation

Molecular biogeochemistry of modern and ancient marine microbes

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