Laser–Raman imagery of Earth's earliest fossils

J. William Schopf (), Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev, David G. Agresti, Thomas J. Wdowiak and Andrew D. Czaja
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J. William Schopf: Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life), University of California
Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev: Astro and Solar System Physics Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham
David G. Agresti: Astro and Solar System Physics Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Thomas J. Wdowiak: Astro and Solar System Physics Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Andrew D. Czaja: Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life), University of California

Nature, 2002, vol. 416, issue 6876, 73-76

Abstract: Abstract Unlike the familiar Phanerozoic history of life, evolution during the earlier and much longer Precambrian segment of geological time centred on prokaryotic microbes1. Because such microorganisms are minute, are preserved incompletely in geological materials, and have simple morphologies that can be mimicked by nonbiological mineral microstructures, discriminating between true microbial fossils and microscopic pseudofossil ‘lookalikes’ can be difficult2,3. Thus, valid identification of fossil microbes, which is essential to understanding the prokaryote-dominated, Precambrian 85% of life's history, can require more than traditional palaeontology that is focused on morphology. By combining optically discernible morphology with analyses of chemical composition, laser–Raman spectroscopic imagery of individual microscopic fossils provides a means by which to address this need. Here we apply this technique to exceptionally ancient fossil microbe-like objects, including the oldest such specimens reported from the geological record, and show that the results obtained substantiate the biological origin of the earliest cellular fossils known.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1038/416073a

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