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Taphonomy in Temporally Unique Settings: An Environmental Traverse in Search of the Earliest Life on Earth

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Book cover Taphonomy

Part of the book series: Aims & Scope Topics in Geobiology Book Series ((TGBI,volume 32))

Abstract

There is an apparent preservational paradox in the early rock record. Cellularly preserved and ensheathed microfossils which are remarkably preserved from the late Archaean (c.2700 Ma) onward, have rarely been found in the earlier rock record and when they are their biogenicity is debated. Likewise, the abundance and morphological complexity of stromatolites appears much reduced in the early Archaean and even these lack compelling associations with organic remains of microbial mats. This ‘preservational dark age’ may have arisen because microfossils and microbial mats were absent, because conditions for their preservation were rare or, as we suggest here, because scientists have largely been looking in the wrong places.

To illustrate the potential of looking far beyond ‘chertified Bahamian lagoons’, we make a traverse across the key potential habitats for early life on Earth and identify some exciting and new taphonomic windows, in the search for Earth’s earliest microfossils, trace fossils and stromatolites. Such habitats include hitherto little explored pillow lavas, hydrothermal vents and beach sandstones. These new windows are already starting to provide surprising insights into the nature of the earliest vital processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PR, UK

    Martin D. Brasier

  2. Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis + School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Perth, Australia

    David Wacey

  3. Department of Earth Sciences and centre of Excellence in Geobiology, University of Bergen, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Nicola McLoughlin

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  1. Martin D. Brasier
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  3. Nicola McLoughlin
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Correspondence to Martin D. Brasier .

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  1. Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ, London, UK

    Peter A. Allison

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, 90089-0740, Los Angeles, California, USA

    David J. Bottjer

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Brasier, M.D., Wacey, D., McLoughlin, N. (2011). Taphonomy in Temporally Unique Settings: An Environmental Traverse in Search of the Earliest Life on Earth. In: Allison, P.A., Bottjer, D.J. (eds) Taphonomy. Aims & Scope Topics in Geobiology Book Series, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8643-3_14

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