Rapid oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere 2.33 billion years ago
Genming Luo,Genming Luo,Shuhei Ono,Nicolas J. Beukes,David T. Wang,Shucheng Xie,Roger E. Summons +6 more
TLDR
The new data suggest that the oxygenation occurred rapidly—within 1 to 10 million years—and was followed by a slower rise in the ocean sulfate inventory, whereas the relationships among GOE, “Snowball Earth” glaciation, and biogeochemical cycling will require further stratigraphic correlation supported with precise chronologies and paleolatitude reconstructions.Abstract:
Molecular oxygen (O2) is, and has been, a primary driver of biological evolution and shapes the contemporary landscape of Earth’s biogeochemical cycles Although “whiffs” of oxygen have been documented in the Archean atmosphere, substantial O2 did not accumulate irreversibly until the Early Paleoproterozoic, during what has been termed the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) The timing of the GOE and the rate at which this oxygenation took place have been poorly constrained until now We report the transition (that is, from being mass-independent to becoming mass-dependent) in multiple sulfur isotope signals of diagenetic pyrite in a continuous sedimentary sequence in three coeval drill cores in the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa These data precisely constrain the GOE to 233 billion years ago The new data suggest that the oxygenation occurred rapidly—within 1 to 10 million years—and was followed by a slower rise in the ocean sulfate inventory Our data indicate that a climate perturbation predated the GOE, whereas the relationships among GOE, “Snowball Earth” glaciation, and biogeochemical cycling will require further stratigraphic correlation supported with precise chronologies and paleolatitude reconstructionsread more
Citations
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Snowball Earth climate dynamics and Cryogenian geology-geobiology
Paul Hoffman,Paul Hoffman,Dorian S. Abbot,Yosef Ashkenazy,Douglas I. Benn,Jochen J. Brocks,Phoebe Cohen,Grant M. Cox,Grant M. Cox,Jessica R. Creveling,Yannick Donnadieu,Yannick Donnadieu,Douglas H. Erwin,Douglas H. Erwin,Ian J. Fairchild,David Ferreira,Jason C. Goodman,Galen P. Halverson,Malte F. Jansen,Guillaume Le Hir,Gordon D. Love,Francis A. Macdonald,Adam C. Maloof,Camille A. Partin,Gilles Ramstein,Brian E. J. Rose,Catherine V. Rose,Peter M. Sadler,Eli Tziperman,Aiko Voigt,Aiko Voigt,Stephen G. Warren +31 more
TL;DR: Modeling shows that the small thermal inertia of a globally frozen surface reverses the annual mean tropical atmospheric circulation, producing an equatorial desert and net snow and frost accumulation elsewhere, and that the evolutionary legacy of Snowball Earth is perceptible in fossils and living organisms.
Journal ArticleDOI
Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote–eukaryote interface
Hiroyuki Imachi,Masaru K. Nobu,Nozomi Nakahara,Nozomi Nakahara,Nozomi Nakahara,Yuki Morono,Miyuki Ogawara,Yoshihiro Takaki,Yoshinori Takano,Katsuyuki Uematsu,Tetsuro Ikuta,Motoo Ito,Yohei Matsui,Masayuki Miyazaki,Kazuyoshi Murata,Yumi Saito,Sanae Sakai,Chihong Song,Eiji Tasumi,Yuko Yamanaka,Takashi Yamaguchi,Yoichi Kamagata,Hideyuki Tamaki,Ken Takai,Ken Takai +24 more
TL;DR: A hypothetical model for eukaryogenesis is proposed, termed the entangle–engulf–endogenize (also known as E 3 ) model, and isolation and characterization of an Asgard archaeon related to Lokiarchaeota reveals insights into how eukARYotes may have evolved from prokaryotes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Timing and tempo of the Great Oxidation Event
Ashley Gumsley,Kevin R. Chamberlain,Kevin R. Chamberlain,Wouter Bleeker,Ulf Söderlund,Ulf Söderlund,Michiel O. de Kock,Emilie R. Larsson,Andrey Bekker,Andrey Bekker +9 more
TL;DR: It is shown that the first Paleoproterozoic global glaciation and the onset of the GOE occurred between ca.
Journal ArticleDOI
Melatonin Synthesis and Function: Evolutionary History in Animals and Plants.
TL;DR: In present day animals, via receptor-mediated means, melatonin functions in the regulation of sleep, modulation of circadian rhythms, enhancement of immunity, as a multifunctional oncostatic agent, etc., while retaining its ability to reduce oxidative stress by processes that are, in part, receptor-independent.
Journal ArticleDOI
How Large Igneous Provinces affect global climate, sometimes cause mass extinctions, and represent natural markers in the geological record
TL;DR: In this paper, a mass extinction link between large Igneous provinces (LIPs) and global climate change is investigated. But the specific effects, their severity, and their time sequencing are specific to each LIP.
References
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The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early ocean and atmosphere
TL;DR: The initial increase of O2 in the atmosphere, its delayed build-up in the ocean, its increase to near-modern levels in the sea and air two billion years later, and its cause-and-effect relationship with life are among the most compelling stories in Earth’s history.
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Atmospheric Influence of Earth's Earliest Sulfur Cycle
TL;DR: Mass-independent isotopic signatures in Precambrian rocks indicate that a change occurred in the sulfur cycle between 2090 and 2450 million years ago, implying that atmospheric oxygen partial pressures were low and that the roles of oxidative weathering and of microbial oxidation and reduction of sulfur were minimal.
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Dating the rise of atmospheric oxygen
Andrey Bekker,Heinrich D. Holland,Pei-Ling Wang,D. Rumble,Holly J. Stein,Judith L. Hannah,Louis Coetzee,Nicolas J. Beukes +7 more
TL;DR: It is found that syngenetic pyrite is present in organic-rich shales of the 2.32-Gyr-old Rooihoogte and Timeball Hill formations, South Africa, indicating that atmospheric oxygen was present at significant levels during the deposition of these units.
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The use of chromium reduction in the analysis of reduced inorganic sulfur in sediments and shales
Donald E. Canfield,Robert Raiswell,Joseph T. Westrich,Christopher M. Reaves,Robert A. Berner +4 more
TL;DR: In this article, a chromium reduction method was used for the determination of reduced inorganic sulfur compounds (pyrite + elemental sulfur + acid volatile monosulfides) in modern sediments and shales.
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The oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans
TL;DR: The last 3.85 Gyr of Earth history have been divided into five stages, and atmospheric oxygen levels probably rose to a maximum value of ca 0.3 atm during the Carboniferous before returning to its present value.