ReviewRoyal Society open science2024
Proterozoic microfossils continue to provide new insights into the rise of complex eukaryotic life.
Review in Royal Society open science, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Earth and environmental sciences 'New Talent' collection.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Sustained shift in the morphology of organic-walled microfossils over the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Eukaryotes have evolved to dominate the biosphere today, accounting for most documented living species and the vast majority of the Earth's biomass. Consequently, understanding how these biologically complex organisms initially diversified in the Proterozoic Eon over 539 million years ago is a foundational question in evolutionary biology. Over the last 70 years, palaeontologists have sought to document the rise of eukaryotes with fossil evidence. However, the delicate and microscopic nature of their sub-cellular features affords early eukaryotes diminished preservation potential. Chemical biomarker signatures of eukaryotes and the genetics of living eukaryotes have emerged as complementary tools for reconstructing eukaryote ancestry. In this review, we argue that exceptionally preserved Proterozoic microfossils are critical to interpreting these complementary tools, providing crucial calibrations to molecular clocks and testing hypotheses of palaeoecology. We highlight recent research on their preservation and biomolecular composition that offers new ways to enhance their utility.
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Registered trials
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