Organic-walled microfossils in 3.2-billion-year-old shallow-marine siliciclastic deposits

Emmanuelle J. Javaux (), Craig P. Marshall and Andrey Bekker
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Emmanuelle J. Javaux: University of Liège, 17 allée du 6 Août B18, Liège 4000, Belgium
Craig P. Marshall: University of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, Kansas 66044, USA
Andrey Bekker: University of Manitoba, 125 Dysart Road (Wallace Building), Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7283, 934-938

Abstract: Early, complex life The discovery of relatively large, cell-like structures in early Archaean shale and siltstone deposits adds further evidence that diversified living organisms thrived on Earth at a very early date. Claims for fossils of this age are often controversial, as non-biological processes can produce life-like microstructures and chemical signatures resembling those of the remains of living organisms. Extensive efforts were therefore made to rule out a non-biological origin for these microstructures. They survive this examination and appear to be organic-walled microfossils derived from large microorganisms that cohabited with previously reported microbial mats living in the sunlit shallows of Earth's early oceans around 3.2 billion years ago.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08793

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