The Paleomineralogy of the Hadean Eon Revisited

Morrison, S. M.; Runyon, Simone E.; Hazen, Robert M.

doi:10.3390/life8040064

Cited by 34 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 180 publications

(208 reference statements)

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“…Most organic minerals observed on Earth today are oxalates and carboxylates of low nutrient value to microbes (Benner et al, 2010) and are therefore able to persist on a planet teeming with life. The presence of life limits the long-term survival of other organic crystals on modern Earth, but such crystals, including cocrystals, could have existed on early Earth and may currently exist on other planetary bodies (Hazen, 2018;Maynard-Casely et al, 2018;Morrison et al, 2018). Organic molecules can be created by abiotic processes (Glasby, 2006;Fu et al, 2007;Kolesnikov et al, 2009;McCollom, 2013;Sephton and Hazen, 2013;Huang et al, 2017).…”

Section: Organic Carbon Mineralogy In Early Earth Environments and Plmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Carbon Mineral Systems: Recent Advances in C Mineral Evolution, Mineral Ecology, and Network Analysis

et al. 2020

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Large and growing data resources on the spatial and temporal diversity and distribution of the more than 400 carbon-bearing mineral species reveal patterns of mineral evolution and ecology. Recent advances in analytical and visualization techniques leverage these data and are propelling mineralogy from a largely descriptive field into one of prediction within complex, integrated, multidimensional systems. These discoveries include: (1) systematic changes in the character of carbon minerals and their networks of coexisting species through deep time; (2) improved statistical predictions of the number and types of carbon minerals that occur on Earth but are yet to be discovered and described; and (3) a range of proposed and ongoing studies related to the quantification of network structures and trends, relation of mineral "natural kinds" to their genetic environments, prediction of the location of mineral species across the globe, examination of the tectonic drivers of mineralization through deep time, quantification of preservational and sampling bias in the mineralogical record, and characterization of feedback relationships between minerals and geochemical environments with microbial populations. These aspects of Earth's carbon mineralogy underscore the complex coevolution of the geosphere and biosphere and highlight the possibility for scientific discovery in Earth and planetary systems.

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Section: Organic Carbon Mineralogy In Early Earth Environments and Plmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Carbon Mineral Systems: Recent Advances in C Mineral Evolution, Mineral Ecology, and Network Analysis

et al. 2020

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“…As Hazen says, even traces of a mineral could have been sufficient for the mineral to be involved in life's origins [38]. Borates, for example, were not present in large quantities at life's origins [39].…”

Section: Claymentioning

confidence: 99%

Did Biology Emerge from Biotite in Micaceous Clay?

Hansma¹

2020

Preprint

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An origin of life between the sheets of micaceous clay is proposed to involve the following steps: 1) evolution of metabolic cycles and nucleic acid replication, in separate niches in biotite mica; 2) evolution of protein synthesis on ribosomes formed by liquid-in-liquid phase separation; 3) repeated encapsulation by membranes of molecules required for the metabolic cycles, replication, and protein synthesis; 4) interactions and fusion of the these membranes containing enclosed molecules; resulting eventually in 5) an occasional living cell, containing everything necessary for life. The spaces between mica sheets have many strengths as a site for life’s origins: mechanochemistry and wet-dry cycles as energy sources, an 0.5-nm anionic crystal lattice with potassium counterions (K+), hydrogen-bonding, enclosure, and more. Mica pieces in micaceous clay are large enough to support mechanochemistry from moving mica sheets. Biotite mica is an iron-rich mica capable of redox reactions, where the stages of life’s origins could have occurred, in micaceous clay.

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“…They do suggest that the ability to show CT activity enhanced relative to saturated terpenoids would have required oxidative unsaturation-a process that might have occurred in the reducing early earth with oxidizing molecules (SO 2 ,S O 4 , RSSR, S n ,N O 2 ,a nd NO 3 )a nd certain minerals (niter, ferricyanide,a nd anatase), [21] but would have been more obvious later,aslevels of O 2 began to rise in amore oxidizing environment. They do suggest that the ability to show CT activity enhanced relative to saturated terpenoids would have required oxidative unsaturation-a process that might have occurred in the reducing early earth with oxidizing molecules (SO 2 ,S O 4 , RSSR, S n ,N O 2 ,a nd NO 3 )a nd certain minerals (niter, ferricyanide,a nd anatase), [21] but would have been more obvious later,aslevels of O 2 began to rise in amore oxidizing environment.…”

Section: Angewandte Chemiementioning

confidence: 99%

Charge Transport through Self‐Assembled Monolayers of Monoterpenoids

Cafferty

Baghbanzadeh

et al. 2019

Angewandte Chemie

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The nature of the processes at the origin of life that selected specific classes of molecules for broad incorporation into cells is controversial. Among those classes selected were polyisoprenoids and their derivatives.T his paper tests the hypothesis that polyisoprenoids were early contributors to membranes in part because they (or their derivatives) could facilitate charge transport by quantum tunneling.I tm easures charge transport across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of carboxyl-terminated monoterpenoids (O 2 C(C 9 HX)) and alkanoates (O 2 C(C 7 HX)) with different degrees of unsaturation, supported on silver (Ag TS )b ottom electrodes,w ith Ga 2 O 3 / EGaIn top electrodes.M easurements of current density of SAMs of linear length-matched hydrocarbons-both saturated and unsaturated-showthat completely unsaturated molecules transport charge faster than those that are completely saturated by approximately afactor of ten. This increase in relative rates of charge transport correlates with the number of carboncarbon double bonds,b ut not with the extent of conjugation. These results suggest that polyisoprenoids-even fully unsaturated-are not sufficiently good tunneling conductors for their conductivity to have favored them as building blocks in the prebiotic world.Supportinginformation and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.

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The Paleomineralogy of the Hadean Eon Revisited

Cited by 34 publications

References 180 publications

Exploring Carbon Mineral Systems: Recent Advances in C Mineral Evolution, Mineral Ecology, and Network Analysis

Exploring Carbon Mineral Systems: Recent Advances in C Mineral Evolution, Mineral Ecology, and Network Analysis

Did Biology Emerge from Biotite in Micaceous Clay?

Charge Transport through Self‐Assembled Monolayers of Monoterpenoids

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