Geochemical constraints on the Hadean environment from mineral fingerprints of prokaryotes

Abstract The environmental conditions on the Earth before 4 billion years ago are highly uncertain, largely because of the lack of a substantial rock record from this period. During this time interval, known as the Hadean, the young planet transformed from an uninhabited world to the one capable of...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alexey A. Novoselov, Dailto Silva, Jerusa Schneider, Ximena Celeste Abrevaya, Michael S. Chaffin, Paloma Serrano, Margareth Sugano Navarro, Maria Josiane Conti, Carlos Roberto de Souza Filho
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/389e8aa024af44deba1bc287f0007ec9
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract The environmental conditions on the Earth before 4 billion years ago are highly uncertain, largely because of the lack of a substantial rock record from this period. During this time interval, known as the Hadean, the young planet transformed from an uninhabited world to the one capable of supporting, and inhabited by the first living cells. These cells formed in a fluid environment they could not at first control, with homeostatic mechanisms developing only later. It is therefore possible that present-day organisms retain some record of the primordial fluid in which the first cells formed. Here we present new data on the elemental compositions and mineral fingerprints of both Bacteria and Archaea, using these data to constrain the environment in which life formed. The cradle solution that produced this elemental signature was saturated in barite, sphene, chalcedony, apatite, and clay minerals. The presence of these minerals, as well as other chemical features, suggests that the cradle environment of life may have been a weathering fluid interacting with dry-land silicate rocks. The specific mineral assemblage provides evidence for a moderate Hadean climate with dry and wet seasons and a lower atmospheric abundance of CO2 than is present today.