Assessing the distribution of sedimentary C40 carotenoids through time.

A comprehensive marine biomarker record of green and purple sulfur bacteria (GSB and PSB, respectively) is required to test whether anoxygenic photosynthesis represented a greater fraction of marine primary productivity during the Precambrian than the Phanerozoic, as current models of ocean redox evolution suggest. For this purpose, we analyzed marine rock extracts and oils from the Proterozoic to the Paleogene for C40 diagenetic products of carotenoid pigments using new analytical methods. Gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry provides a new perspective on the temporal distributions of carotenoid biomarkers for phototrophic sulfur bacteria, specifically okenane, chlorobactane, and paleorenieratane. According to conventional paleoredox interpretations, this revised stratigraphic distribution of the GSB and PSB biomarkers implies that the shallow sunlit surface ocean (<24 m) became sulfidic more frequently in the geologic past than was previously thought. We reexamine whether there is evidence supporting a planktonic source of GSB and PSB pigments in marine systems or whether additional factors are required to explain the marine phototrophic sulfur bacteria record. To date, planktonic GSB and PSB and their pigments have been identified in restricted basins and lakes, but they have yet to be detected in the unrestricted, transiently sulfidic, marine systems. Based on modern observations, additional environmental factors, including basin restriction, microbial mats, or sediment transport, may be required to fully explain GSB and PSB carotenoids in the geologic record.

Fossil microorganisms from the approximately 2800 to 2500 million-year-old Bulawayan stromatolite: Application of ultramicrochemical analyses.

Microfossils, probably representing members of Precambrian photosynthetic communities of bacteria and blue-green algae, have been found in the approximately 2800-2500 million-year-old Bulawayan stromatolites from Rhodesia. Several populations of coccoid and elongate microfossils have been observed in the dark, carbon-rich stromatolite laminae. Some of these elongate forms are morphologically similar to modern bacterial spores. These microfossils were studied in petrographic thin sections and identified by combined scanning electron microscopy-electron microprobe and by analyses of energy dispersive spectra of individual microfossils. The microfossils contain 1-20% organic carbon; some morphotypes contain traces of sulfur and one other, traces of phosphorus. The polymeric nature of the organic carbon was established by analyzing aggregates of microfossils at elevated temperatures in the solid inlet system of an organic mass spectrometer. The coccoid microfossils range in size from 1.2 to 4.3 mum, the elongate microfossils are from 2.4 to 9.8 mum. They are mineralized with dolomite, embedded in a calcite matrix, and are shown to be both indigenous and syngenous with the rock. Identical microfossils also containing organic carbon but mineralized with quartz have been observed in the stromatolites from Belingwe which are part of the Bulawayan Group from Rhodesia. Caution must be used in the interpretation of what these forms are because of their great age and relatively simple morphologies. However, based on morphology and chemical analyses, they represent fossilized bacteria, blue-green algae, or, most likely, both.

Abiotic, Graphitic Microstructures in Micaceous Metaquartzite about 3760 Million Years Old from Southwestern Greenland: Implications for Early Precambrian Microfossils.

An Early Precambrian micaceous metaquartzite subjected to low to moderate metamorphism in the Isua area of Southwestern Greenland was derived from the erosion of preexisting rocks which were probably sialic in composition. This metaquartzite may have been formed before the emergence of life. It contains globular particles of graphite arranged in narrow veins or along foliation or bedding planes. This rock contains no organic compounds besides traces of methane and no biologically significant elements associated with the graphite microstructures. Reaction of primitive methane with ferric oxides appears to have oxidized the methane to the vein graphite and reduced the ferric oxides to ferrous-ferric oxide (magnetite). The graphitic microstructures are likely to be abiotic in origin, although a biological origin is not impossible. Somewhat younger microstructures found in other locations on earth have often been described as microfossils; this origin should be reexamined on the basis of the above mentioned conclusions.

Stereoisomeric specificity and soil gas disequilibria: implications for martian life detection.

Variations in the atmospheric composition of soil samples were monitored by mass spectrometry after the addition of mixtures of D- and L-carbohydrates and/or amino acids. The changes in concentrations of CO2 in these experiments were found to be related to the steroisomeric configurations of the compounds with which the soil samples were enriched. The potential of this relationship provides a comparatively simple approach for detecting life in extraterrestrial soils.