ArticleNature communications2022
Intracellular bound chlorophyll residues identify 1 Gyr-old fossils as eukaryotic algae.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quantifying Trace Metals in Gunflint Microfossils by 3D Correlative X-ray Nanoimaging.Analytical chemistry · 2026Article
- Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis-GC-MS and supervised machine learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 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
- 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular eukaryotes from the Chuanlinggou Formation in North China.Science advances · 2024Article
- Review
- Eukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Review
- Phylotranscriptomic insights into a Mesoproterozoic-Neoproterozoic origin and early radiation of green seaweeds (Ulvophyceae).Nature communications · 2022Article
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16 authors.
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Abstract
The acquisition of photosynthesis is a fundamental step in the evolution of eukaryotes. However, few phototrophic organisms are unambiguously recognized in the Precambrian record. The in situ detection of metabolic byproducts in individual microfossils is the key for the direct identification of their metabolisms. Here, we report a new integrative methodology using synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence and absorption. We evidence bound nickel-geoporphyrins moieties in low-grade metamorphic rocks, preserved in situ within cells of a ~1 Gyr-old multicellular eukaryote, Arctacellularia tetragonala. We identify these moieties as chlorophyll derivatives, indicating that A. tetragonala was a phototrophic eukaryote, one of the first unambiguous algae. This new approach, applicable to overmature rocks, creates a strong new proxy to understand the evolution of phototrophy and diversification of early ecosystems.
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