Early Life on Earth: The Ancient Fossil Record

2004 ◽  
pp. 287-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Westall
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Life On Earth

The ~3.4 billion-year-old Strelley Pool Sandstone: a new window into early life on Earth

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wacey ◽  
Nicola McLoughlin ◽  
Owen R. Green ◽  
John Parnell ◽  
Crispin A. Stoakes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Geological Mapping ◽  
Tubular Structures ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Diagenetic History ◽  
Pool Formation

The recognition and understanding of the early fossil record on Earth is vital to the success of missions searching for life on other planets. Despite this, the evidence for life on Earth before ~3.0 Ga remains controversial. The discovery of new windows of preservation in the rock record more than 3.0 Ga would therefore be helpful to enhance our understanding of the context for the earliest life on Earth. Here we report one such discovery, a ~3.4 Ga sandstone at the base of the Strelley Pool Formation from the Pilbara of Western Australia, in which micrometre-sized tubular structures preserve putative evidence of biogenicity. Detailed geological mapping and petrography reveals the depositional and early diagenetic history of the host sandstone. We demonstrate that the depositional environment was conducive to life and that sandstone clasts containing putative biological structures can be protected from later metamorphic events, preserving earlier biological signals. We conclude from this that sandstones have an exciting taphonomic potential both on early Earth and beyond.

3.43 billion-year-old stromatolite reef from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia: Ecosystem-scale insights to early life on Earth

2007 ◽  
Vol 158 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 198-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail C. Allwood ◽  
Malcolm R. Walter ◽  
Ian W. Burch ◽  
Balz S. Kamber
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Pilbara Craton

Chemosynthesis and Chemosymbiosis in the Fossil Record: Detecting Unusual Communities Using Isotope Geochemistry

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 255-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily A. Cobabe
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Isotope Geochemistry ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Geochemical Proxies ◽  
Second Tier ◽  
Geologic Record ◽  
Life On Earth

The exploration of chemosynthetic communities in the geologic record over the last ten years has generated a series of sedimentological, tectonic and geochemical criteria that help define a continuum of environments from hot hydrothermal vents to nearshore geothermal deposits. Many of these studies have used stable isotope geochemistry to uncover a depleted carbon signature that characterizes most fossil chemosynthetically derived deposits. Isotope geochemistry (carbon, nitrogen and sulfur) as been an important thread in the story of the discovery of modern chemosynthetic communities, as well, adding to understanding of the biogeochemistry of these ecosystems. With increasing awareness of the prominence of these communities, not just as a biological novelty, but as a fundamental component of life on Earth (and perhaps elsewhere), the drive to develop geochemical proxies for chemosynthetic taxa in the fossil record intensifies. Increased ability to recognize these communities provides access to a second tier of paleobiological questions, including ideas of evolutionary history and selective advantage.

scholarly journals Volcaniclastic habitats for early life on Earth and Mars: A case study from ∼3.5Ga-old rocks from the Pilbara, Australia

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (10) ◽  
pp. 1093-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Westall ◽  
Frédéric Foucher ◽  
Barbara Cavalazzi ◽  
Sjoukje T. de Vries ◽  
Wouter Nijman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Life On Earth

A symbiotic view of the origin of life at hydrothermal impact crater-lakes

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (30) ◽  
pp. 20033-20046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sankar Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Impact Crater ◽  
Crater Lakes ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth

Submarine hydrothermal vents are generally considered as the likely habitats for the origin and evolution of early life on Earth.

Mineral remains of early life on earth? On mars?

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanora Iberall Robbins ◽  
Arthur S. Iberall
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Life On Earth

Prokaryotes and Protists

1987 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jere H. Lipps
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Life On Earth

Perhaps two of the most important groups of fossils are the prokaryotes and protists, both single-celled organisms. They are not spectacular fossils and so may be less interesting to students than the more complicated metazoans and metaphytes, yet these two groups not only dominate life on Earth today, but they contribute enormously to our understanding of Earth and life history. Prokaryotes dominated the fossil record of Earth from 3.5 to nearly .5 billion years ago (Knoll, 1985). For the last 1.5 billion years, protists have been an important element in marine and probably other ecosystems.

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