Showing papers by "Fiona Brock published in 2001"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have replicated the fossilization process in the laboratory by using both microbial and chemical approaches to pyritize plant debris and demonstrate that initial pyritization can be an extremely rapid process (within 80 days) and is driven by biologically-active bacterial-mediated decay.
Abstract: The process of fossilization is poorly understood. However, it is central to our understanding
of the evolution of life. It is unclear how plant tissues become fossilized, whether
fossilization is selective to specific biopolymers, or whether original organic constituents
survive. We have replicated the fossilization process in the laboratory by using both microbial
and chemical approaches to pyritize plant debris. These results demonstrate that
initial pyritization can be an extremely rapid process (within 80 days) and is driven by
anaerobic bacterial-mediated decay. Initially, pyrite precipitates on and within plant cell
walls and in the spaces between them. Further decay and infilling at all scales preserves
broad cellular anatomy. The results have implications for fossilization in general and the
fidelity of the taxonomic and biomolecular information preserved in fossils.
111 citations