ArticleScience advances2021
Experimental taphonomy of organelles and the fossil record of early eukaryote evolution.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid-Proterozoic.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Three-dimensional reconstruction of ediacaran ceramiales (Rhodophyta) from the phosphorite doushantuo formation, South China.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Experimental taphonomy of marine algae and cyanobacteria reveals the decoupling of morphological and chemical decay patterns.iScience · 2025Article
- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Proterozoic microfossils continue to provide new insights into the rise of complex eukaryotic life.Royal Society open science · 2024Review
- Article
- Cryogenian Origins of Multicellularity in Archaeplastida.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Colonial green algae in the Cambrian plankton.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Uncovering Plant Virus Species Forming Novel Provisional Taxonomic Units Related to the FamilyViruses · 2022Article
- Eukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Review
- A putatively extinct higher taxon of Spirotrichea (Ciliophora) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Nuclear preservation in the cartilage of the Jehol dinosaur Caudipteryx.Communications biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The timing of origin of eukaryotes and the sequence of eukaryogenesis are poorly constrained because their fossil record is difficult to interpret. Claims of fossilized organelles have been discounted on the unsubstantiated perception that they decay too quickly for fossilization. We experimentally characterized the pattern and time scale of decay of nuclei, chloroplasts, and pyrenoids in red and green algae, demonstrating that they persist for many weeks postmortem as physical substrates available for preservation, a time scale consistent with known mechanisms of fossilization. Chloroplasts exhibit greater decay resistance than nuclei; pyrenoids are unlikely to be preserved, but their presence could be inferred from spaces within fossil chloroplasts. Our results are compatible with differential organelle preservation in seed plants. Claims of fossilized organelles in Proterozoic fossils can no longer be dismissed on grounds of plausibility, prompting reinterpretation of the early eukaryotic fossil record and the prospect of a fossil record of eukaryogenesis.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.