Earliest Life on Earth: Habitats, Environments and Methods of Detection
This volume integrates the latest findings on earliest life forms, identified and characterised in some of the oldest rocks on Earth. New material from prominent researchers in the field is presented and evaluated in the context of previous work. Emphasis
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Suzanne D. Golding • Miryam Glikson Editors
Earliest Life on Earth: Habitats, Environments and Methods of Detection
Editors Suzanne D. Golding School of Earth Sciences University of Queensland Brisbane Australia [email protected]
Miryam Glikson School of Earth Sciences University of Queensland Brisbane Australia [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-8793-5 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8794-2 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8794-2 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934231 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: Top picture: Thermally degraded and compressed primary microbial cell constituting the predominant insitu, parallel to bedding organic matter (OM) in 3.5 billion year old rock formation in Western Australia. Observed and recorded by Miryam Glikson using TEM. Below 1 (from left to right): Primary microbial cells, not thermally degraded, preserved in fluid inclusions within quartz crystals in 3.5 billion year old rock formation in Western Australia. Observations using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) by Miryam Glikson. 2. OM coating quartz grains (represented by voids), part of major insitu OM in 3.5 billion year old rock formation in Western Australia. TEM observations and recording by Miryam Glikson. 3. Laboratory produced OM in simulated hydrothermal conditions, seen here to coat quartz grains (black). Note the close resemblance to similar OM occurrence in the 3.5 B.Y old rocks. Experimental work, observations and recording of synthesized OM using TEM by Bradley De Gregorio. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
This volume integrates the latest findings on earliest life forms, identified and characterised in some of the oldest sedimentary rocks and seafloor hydrothermal systems on Earth and includes a number of papers from authors with alternate perspectives on the evidence of earliest life. Emphasis is placed on the integration of microanalytical methods with observational techniques and experimental simulations because of the challenges involved in study of organic matter in such ancient rocks. The opening section focuses on submarine vent systems that the majority of researchers postulate served as the cradle of life on Earth. In the following sections evidence for life in strongly metamorphosed rocks such as those in Greenland is evaluated and early ecosystems identified in the well preserved Barberton and Pilbara successions in Southern Africa and Western Australia. This volume will be of great value to graduate students and researchers interested in the origin
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