ArticleNature communications2017
Iron minerals within specific microfossil morphospecies of the 1.88 Ga Gunflint Formation.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quantifying Trace Metals in Gunflint Microfossils by 3D Correlative X-ray Nanoimaging.Analytical chemistry · 2026Article
- On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms.eLife · 2026Article
- Ultrahigh-resolution imaging of biogenic phosphorus and molybdenum in palaeoproterozoic gunflint microfossils.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Primordial magnetotaxis in putative giant paleoproterozoic magnetofossils.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- A review of microbial-environmental interactions recorded in Proterozoic carbonate-hosted chert.Geobiology · 2023Review
- Exploring the secondary mineral products generated by microbial iron respiration in Archean ocean simulations.Geobiology · 2022Article
- Brief survey on organometalated antibacterial drugs and metal-based materials with antibacterial activity.RSC chemical biology · 2021Review
- An Alternative Approach for Assessing Biogenicity.Astrobiology · 2021Article
- On Topological Analysis of fs-LIMS Data. Implications for in Situ Planetary Mass Spectrometry.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2021Article
- Minimal biomass deposition in banded iron formations inferred from organic matter and clay relationships.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Cyanobacteria evolution: Insight from the fossil record.Free radical biology & medicine · 2019Review
- Review
- A Field Guide to Finding Fossils on Mars.Journal of geophysical research. Planets · 2018Review
- Volcanogenic Pseudo-Fossils from the ∼3.48 Ga Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- Experimental maturation of Archaea encrusted by Fe-phosphates.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- 2D/3D Microanalysis by Energy Dispersive X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Tomography.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Problematic microfossils dominate the palaeontological record between the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago (Ga) and the last Palaeoproterozoic iron formations, deposited 500-600 million years later. These fossils are often associated with iron-rich sedimentary rocks, but their affinities, metabolism, and, hence, their contributions to Earth surface oxidation and Fe deposition remain unknown. Here we show that specific microfossil populations of the 1.88 Ga Gunflint Iron Formation contain Fe-silicate and Fe-carbonate nanocrystal concentrations in cell interiors. Fe minerals are absent in/on all organically preserved cell walls. These features are consistent with in vivo intracellular Fe biomineralization, with subsequent in situ recrystallization, but contrast with known patterns of post-mortem Fe mineralization. The Gunflint populations that display relatively large cells (thick-walled spheres, filament-forming rods) and intra-microfossil Fe minerals are consistent with oxygenic photosynthesizers but not with other Fe-mineralizing microorganisms studied so far. Fe biomineralization may have protected oxygenic photosynthesizers against Fe
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