title: Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis.
abstract: The recent discovery of a deep-water sulfur-cycling microbial biota in the ∼ 2.3-Ga Western Australian Turee Creek Group opened a new window to life's early history. We now report a second such subseafloor-inhabiting community from the Western Australian ∼ 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation. Permineralized in cherts formed during and soon after the 2.4- to 2.2-Ga "Great Oxidation Event," these two biotas may evidence an opportunistic response to the mid-Precambrian increase of environmental oxygen that resulted in increased production of metabolically useable sulfate and nitrate. The marked similarity of microbial morphology, habitat, and organization of these fossil communities to their modern counterparts documents exceptionally slow (hypobradytelic) change that, if paralleled by their molecular biology, would evidence extreme evolutionary stasis.
authors: Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, and Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095; Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA 16802; Astrobiology Research Consortium and schopf@ess.ucla.edu.
authors: J William
authors: JW
authors: Schopf
authors: Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA 16802; Astrobiology Research Consortium and.
authors: Anatoliy B
authors: AB
authors: Kudryavtsev
authors: Australian Centre for Astrobiology, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.
authors: Malcolm R
authors: MR
authors: Walter
authors: Australian Centre for Astrobiology, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia;
authors: Martin J
authors: MJ
authors: Van Kranendonk
authors: Astrobiology Research Consortium and Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109; and.
authors: Kenneth H
authors: KH
authors: Williford
authors: Astrobiology Research Consortium and Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706;
authors: Reinhard
authors: R
authors: Kozdon
authors: Astrobiology Research Consortium and Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706;
authors: John W
authors: JW
authors: Valley
authors: Departamento de Oceanografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors: Victor A
authors: VA
authors: Gallardo
authors: Departamento de Oceanografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors: Carola
authors: C
authors: Espinoza
authors: Australian Centre for Astrobiology, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109; and.
authors: David T
authors: DT
authors: Flannery
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils / Q000382:microbiology*; D013455:Sulfur / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013455:Sulfur
keywords: Great Oxidation Event; Precambrian microorganisms; microbial evolution; null hypothesis; sulfur bacteria
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