Morphological record of oxygenic photosynthesis in conical stromatolites
Name
Bosak-2009-Morphological record.pdf
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1.43 MB
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Author(s)
Petroff, Alexander Peter
Sim, Min Sub
Liang, Biqing
Bosak, Tanja
Date Issued
May 2009
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
United States National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Bosak, Tanja et al. “Morphological record of oxygenic photosynthesis in conical stromatolites.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.27 (2009): 10939-10943. © 2009 National Academy of Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Conical stromatolites are thought to be robust indicators of the presence of photosynthetic and phototactic microbes in aquatic environments as early as 3.5 billion years ago. However, phototaxis alone cannot explain the ubiquity of disrupted, curled, and contorted laminae in the crests of many Mesoproterozoic, Paleoproterozoic, and some Archean conical stromatolites. Here, we demonstrate that cyanobacterial production of oxygen in the tips of modern conical aggregates creates contorted laminae and submillimeter-to-millimeter-scale enmeshed bubbles. Similarly sized fossil bubbles and contorted laminae may be present only in the crestal zones of some conical stromatolites 2.7 billion years old or younger. This implies not only that cyanobacteria built Proterozoic conical stromatolites but also that fossil bubbles may constrain the timing of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0900885106
