Pondering the Precambrian #26

Proterozoic:

NeoProterozoic:

The Earth's magnetic field was 10% of what it is today during the Ediacaran and the Earth's solid core may date from that period.

Evidence from Murmansk supports the weak magnetic field hypothesis during the Proterozoic.

Trace fossils from the Ediacaran have been found in Brittany, France.

Ediacaran environmental changes are recorded in Brazil.

The iodine content of the the Doushanto deposits of the Ediacaran.

Microorganisms are the source of organic carbon found in Sichuan from the Ediacaran into the Cambrian. 

It appears Cloudina and other tubular organisms from the terminal Ediacaran appear to have reproduced asexually.

There is evidence of hydrothermal activity altering various deposits during the Ediacaran.

Evidence of the breakup of Rodinia to the accretion of Gondwana in the Ediacaran from Paraguay.

A new biomarker has been found from the Cryogenian that hints at how complex life evolved after the Snowball Earth.

There was a deep marine organic reservoir in the Cryogenian.

Starting in the Cryogenian until the start of the Carboniferous, there was significant lack of impacts.  There might be evidence of the Snowball Earth via a global wiping of the impact craters from before that point, too.

Could the Great Noncomformity be due to the Snowball Earth?

The Great Noncomformity represents a 200to 300 million year gap in the depositional history of the world according to evidence from the North China Craton.

There are graphite particles in Cryogenian deposits of Nantuo.

Manganese ore deposits in South China were formed in the interglacial between the Sturtian and Marinoan glacials by microbial activity.

Is hydrothermal activity from the Tonian of the Western Australian Craton evidence of the breakup of Rodinia?

Mesoproterozoic:

Eukaryotes diversified earlier than previously thought, starting in the Ectasian.

Paleoproterozoic:

There was a 30 degree shift in the mafic dyke swarms during the Paleoproterozoic.

The surface conditions of at the start of the Great Oxygenation Event were anoxic.

There is evidence from the Yangtze Block that contradicts the hypothesis that there was a shutdown of plate tectonics during the PaleoProterozoic.

Archean:

A coupled crust/mantle formed before 2.5 billion years ago.

Evidence from the MesoArchean to the Paleoproterozoic of Norway show how the continents were built up.

More evidence of episodic crust growth starting in the MesoArchean.

There may be EoArchean deposits in the North China craton.

Sarmatia, Pilbara, and Kaapvaal Cratons were all part of the single supercontinent Vaalbara.

There's no evidence of pre 3.95 billion year old fossils.

Hadean:

Did the impact with Theia provide the volatiles the Earth needed for life?

Did asteroid impacts have a central role in the formation of the original continents?

META:

There is a 600 million year superocean cycle modulating a longer supercontinent.

Could sulfur dioxide have helped with the start of prebiotic carbohydrates?

There are biochemical hints that the last common universal ancestor - the last life form from which everything alive is descended - was not a hyperthermophile.

Reconstruction the Last Eukaryote Common Ancestor's genome to understand the evolution from the First Eukaryote Common Ancestor to the LECA.

Chunks of RNA can be formed prebioticly.

Studying algae suggest eukaryotes have received numerous DNA additions from bacteria.

Pondering the Precambrian #10

NeoProterozoic:

The Ediacaran's Palaeopascichnus linearis appears to be the oldest macroscopic organism.

Exceptinal preservation of biomarkers was found in Ediacaran deposits from the Eastern European Craton.

The paleoenvironmental change gets examined leading up to the Gaskiers Glaciation in the Ediacaran.

The interglacial timeframe in the Cryogenian appears to should anoxic marine waters in South China.

The end of the Cryogenian Sturtian Glaciation according to new dating techniques supports a global and rapid deglaciation consistent with the snowball earth scenario.

At the dawn of the Sturtian glaciation during the Cryogenian, solar activity left no sign of any change.

Stromatoveris appears to be a survivor from the Ediacaran into the Cambrian.

Mesoproterozoic:

During the Stenian, the marine ecosystems were dominated by bacteria.

There is evidence of increased, but still limited biological productivity from the Ectasian/Calymmian boundary in Canada.

Paleoproterozoic:

There is evidence in from an Orosirian lake in Russia, that methanotrophic and autophototrophic biomes lived in the same body of water.

Orosirian micrometer fossils were identified using laser ablation mass spectrometry.

Researchers attempted to model the GOE atmosphere and had an interesting result regarding methane.

Evidence from the Boolgeeda Iron Formation in Australia suggests shallow water oxygenation took place while the iron banded formations were being deposited.

The Kaapvaal Craton shows evidence of subduction at the Archean/PaleoProterozoic Boundary.

Archean:

Shallow waters in South Africa just prior to the Great Oxygenation Event were still anoxic.

The disappearance of certain sulfur compounds appears to make a good proxy for the rise of oxygen in the Archean atmosphere.

There seems to have been intermittent surface ocean oxygenation prior to the Great Oxygenation Event during the NeoArchean.

There is evidence of continental collisions and subduction from the MesoArchean.

There is evidence of bacterial mats inhabiting terrestrial environments during the late PaleoArchean.

There is also evidence of bacterial speciation from the PaleoArchean deposits of Pilbara, Australia.

The Strelley Pool micro fossils from the PaleoArchean appear to be biological.

Was Delayed Intercontinental Seas' Euxinia A Vital for Eukaryotes to Survive During the Statherian PaleoProterozoic?

Delayed euxinia in Paleoproterozoic intracontinental seas: Vital havens for the evolution of eukaryotes?

Authors:

Spinks et al

Abstract:

Increased flux of sulfate to the oceans in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) ∼2.4 billion years ago (Ga) caused major changes in seawater chemistry, which eventually contributed to the cessation of iron formation deposition ∼1.8 Ga. It is generally accepted that this engendered heterogeneous stratified redox conditions, with anoxic and sulfidic (euxinic) conditions in shallow open-marine environments and anoxic ferruginous conditions in deeper environments. However, the redox evolution of intracontinental marine basins following the cessation of iron formation deposition remains poorly understood.

Here, we report contrasting paleoredox conditions in two shale units of the lower McArthur Basin, northern Australia, soon after the cessation of iron formation deposition ∼1.84 Ga. Our data shows that the ∼1.78 Ga McDermott Formation was deposited in a sulfur-limited, anoxic shallow-marine environment, whereas the younger ∼1.73 Ga Wollogorang Formation was deposited in a euxinic shallow-marine environment. This implies a delay in the development of euxinia in a shallow intracontinental basin following the onset of euxinia in the open marine realm. Since bioessential metals are sequestered by pyrite deposition under euxinic conditions, protracted low-sulfidic conditions in 1.78 Ga intracontinental shallow environments could have provided vital niches for nitrogen-fixing prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Thus the ability for localized Paleoproterozoic intracontinental basins to remain non-euxinic after the onset of euxinia in shallow open-marine shelves highlights the importance of intracontinental environments to the evolution and diversification of microbial life, perhaps throughout the wider Proterozoic.

An Alternate Explanation for Jasper Formation Prior to the Great Oxidation Event

Dust to dust: Evidence for the formation of “primary” hematite dust in banded iron formations via oxidation of iron silicate nanoparticles

Authors:

Rasmussen et al

Abstract:

Conventional models for the deposition of banded iron formations (BIFs) envisage the oxidation of upwelled ferrous iron and the precipitation of ferric oxide/hydroxide particles in surface waters that settled to form laterally extensive layers of iron-rich sediment. A fundamental tenet of this model is that fine-grained hematite (so-called dusty hematite) in least-altered BIFs represents the dehydration product of original oxide/hydroxide precipitates. However, this premise has never been proven. We have investigated the origin of the earliest-formed iron oxides in chert in well-preserved BIFs of the 2.63-2.45 billion-year-old Hamersley Group, Australia. We find that laminated chert in BIFs show progressive stages of in situ alteration from grey-green chert, containing iron-silicate nanoparticles, to red chert with abundant hematite dust. Analysis of textures by transmission electron microscopy of samples from the transition zone between grey-green and red chert reveals that dusty hematite formed after partial dissolution of iron-silicate nanoparticles by the precipitation of iron oxides in resulting cavities. These observations suggest that hematite dust is not a relict of an original seawater precipitate but the end-product of post-depositional oxidation. Our observations are consistent with paleomagnetic results from the Hamersley Group, which record two major phases of magnetic remanence carried by hematite that post-date deposition by more than 200 million years. Our results may provide an alternative explanation for the origin of jasper in BIFs deposited before the start of the Great Oxidation Event about 2.4 billion years ago. If correct, it follows that hematite dust is not a reliable proxy for paleoenvironmental conditions or biological processes in early Precambrian seawater. Furthermore, our results suggest that the primary iron precipitate in BIFs was iron-silicate mud that was silicified at or just below the sediment-water interface, a hypothesis that requires neither dissolved oxygen nor photosynthetic life, but was an inorganic, chemical process, reflecting anoxic oceans enriched in iron and silica.

Tracking Copper Through the Great Oxidation Event

Cu isotopes in marine black shales record the Great Oxidation Event

Authors:

Fru et al

Abstract:

The oxygenation of the atmosphere ∼2.45–2.32 billion years ago (Ga) is one of the most significant geological events to have affected Earth’s redox history. Our understanding of the timing and processes surrounding this key transition is largely dependent on the development of redox-sensitive proxies, many of which remain unexplored. Here we report a shift from negative to positive copper isotopic compositions (δ65CuERM-AE633) in organic carbon-rich shales spanning the period 2.66–2.08 Ga. We suggest that, before 2.3 Ga, a muted oxidative supply of weathering-derived copper enriched in 65Cu, along with the preferential removal of 65Cu by iron oxides, left seawater and marine biomass depleted in 65Cu but enriched in 63Cu. As banded iron formation deposition waned and continentally sourced Cu became more important, biomass sampled a dissolved Cu reservoir that was progressively less fractionated relative to the continental pool. This evolution toward heavy δ65Cu values coincides with a shift to negative sedimentary δ56Fe values and increased marine sulfate after the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), and is traceable through Phanerozoic shales to modern marine settings, where marine dissolved and sedimentary δ65Cu values are universally positive. Our finding of an important shift in sedimentary Cu isotope compositions across the GOE provides new insights into the Precambrian marine cycling of this critical micronutrient, and demonstrates the proxy potential for sedimentary Cu isotope compositions in the study of biogeochemical cycles and oceanic redox balance in the past.

Great Oxygenation Event had a Precedessor 100 Million Years Earlier

Earth scientists from the University of Alberta, University of Waterloo, Arizona State University, University of California Riverside, and Georgia Institute of Technology have found evidence that Earth's transition to a permanently oxygenated atmosphere was anything but smooth.

Their paper, published this month in Science Advances, uses geochemical data from sedimentary rocks in Western Australia to show that a burst of O2 production by photosynthetic cyanobacteria temporarily increased O2 concentrations in Earth's atmosphere and shallow oceans roughly 2.5 billion years ago.

"We are tracking atmospheric changes through time to understand how oxygen increased to the level needed to support complex life," says Rob Creaser, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta. "When the Earth first formed, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. Our analytical facilities here at the U of A allowed us to conduct precise analyses of this rock sample to understand the tempo at which that oxygen built up through photosynthesis.

Creaser's lab at the University of Alberta in the Canadian Centre for Isotopic Microanalysis is one of only a few in the world with the ability to take the precise measurements of osmium needed to conduct this type of analysis. "Without this type of facility, we wouldn't be able to write this paper or investigate this process."

The new data suggest that O2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere fluctuated until enough O2 finally accumulated to create a permanently oxygenated atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago, a transition widely known as the "Great Oxidation Event." "The onset of Earth's surface oxygenation may have been a complex process characterized by multiple 'whiffs' of O2 until a tipping point was crossed," says Creaser's former PhD student and UAlberta alumnus Brian Kendall, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo and lead author on the paper.

link.

2nd link.

Did Multicellularity in Cyanobacteria Help Drive the Great Oxidation Event?

Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event: evidence from genes and fossils

Authors:

Schirrmeister et al

Abstract:

Cyanobacteria are among the most ancient of evolutionary lineages, oxygenic photosynthesizers that may have originated before 3.0 Ga, as evidenced by free oxygen levels. Throughout the Precambrian, cyanobacteria were one of the most important drivers of biological innovations, strongly impacting early Earth's environments. At the end of the Archean Eon, they were responsible for the rapid oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere during an episode referred to as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). However, little is known about the origin and diversity of early cyanobacterial taxa, due to: (1) the scarceness of Precambrian fossil deposits; (2) limited characteristics for the identification of taxa; and (3) the poor preservation of ancient microfossils. Previous studies based on 16S rRNA have suggested that the origin of multicellularity within cyanobacteria might have been associated with the GOE. However, single-gene analyses have limitations, particularly for deep branches. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of cyanobacteria using genome scale data and re-evaluated the Precambrian fossil record to get more precise calibrations for a relaxed clock analysis. For the phylogenomic reconstructions, we identified 756 conserved gene sequences in 65 cyanobacterial taxa, of which eight genomes have been sequenced in this study. Character state reconstructions based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inference confirm previous findings, of an ancient multicellular cyanobacterial lineage ancestral to the majority of modern cyanobacteria. Relaxed clock analyses provide firm support for an origin of cyanobacteria in the Archean and a transition to multicellularity before the GOE. It is likely that multicellularity had a greater impact on cyanobacterial fitness and thus abundance, than previously assumed. Multicellularity, as a major evolutionary innovation, forming a novel unit for selection to act upon, may have served to overcome evolutionary constraints and enabled diversification of the variety of morphotypes seen in cyanobacteria today.

Siderian/Rhyacian PaleoProterozoic Environment of Western Australia Across the Great Oxygenation Event Through Huronian Glaciations

Sedimentology, chemostratigraphy, and stromatolites of lower Paleoproterozoic carbonates, Turee Creek Group, Western Australia

Authors:

Martindale et al

Abstract:

The ca. 2.45–2.22 Ga Turee Creek Group, Western Australia, contains carbonate-rich horizons that postdate earliest Proterozoic iron formations, bracket both Paleoproterozoic glaciogenic beds and the onset of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), and predate ca. 2.2–2.05 Ga Lomagundi-Jatuli C-isotopic excursion(s). As such, Turee Creek carbonate strata provide an opportunity to characterize early Paleoproterozoic carbonate sedimentation and carbon cycle dynamics in the context of significant global change. Here, we report on the stratigraphy, sedimentology, petrology, carbon isotope chemostratigraphy, and stromatolite development for carbonate-rich successions within the pre-glacial part of the Kungarra Formation and the postglacial Kazput Formation.

Kungarra carbonate units largely occur as laterally discontinuous beds within a thick, predominantly siliciclastic shelf deposit. While this succession contains thin microbialite horizons, most carbonates consist of patchy calcite overgrowths within a siliciclastic matrix. C-isotopic values show marked variation along a single horizon and even within hand samples, reflecting spatially and temporally variable mixing between dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater and isotopically light inorganic carbon generated via syn- and post-depositional remineralization of organic matter.

In contrast, the Kazput carbonates consist of subtidal stromatolites, grainstones, and micrites deposited on a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic shelf. These carbonates exhibit moderate δ13C values of −2‰ to +1.5‰ and likely preserve a C-isotopic signature of seawater. Kazput carbonates, thus, provide some of the best available evidence that an interval of unexceptional C-isotopic values separates the Lomagundi-Jatuli C-isotopic excursion(s) from the initiation of the GOE as inferred from multiple sulfur isotopes (loss of mass independent fractionation). The Kazput Formation also contains unusual, m-scale stromatolitic buildups, which are composed of sub-mm laminae and discontinuous, convex upward lenticular precipitates up to a few mm in maximum thickness. Laminae, interpreted as microbial mat layers, contain quartz and clay minerals as well as calcite, whereas precipitate lenses consist of interlocking calcite anhedra, sometimes showing faint mm-scale banding. These cements formed either as infillings of primary voids formed by gas emission within penecontemporaneously lithified mats, or as local seafloor precipitates that formed on, or within, surface mats. It is possible that both mechanisms interacted to form the unique Kazput stromatolites. These microbialites speak to a distinctive interaction between life and environment early in the Paleoproterozoic Era.

Explaining the Rhyacian PaleoProterozoic Lomagundi Event

The rise of oxygen and siderite oxidation during the Lomagundi Event

Authors:

Bachan et al

Abstract:

The Paleoproterozoic Lomagundi Event is an interval of 130–250 million years, ca. 2.3–2.1 billion years ago, in which extraordinarily 13C enriched (greater than 10‰) limestones and dolostones occur globally. The high levels of organic carbon burial implied by the positive δ13C values suggest the production of vast quantities of O2 as well as an alkalinity imbalance demanding extremely low levels of weathering. The oxidation of sulfides has been proposed as a mechanism capable of ameliorating these imbalances: It is a potent sink for O2 as well as a source of acidity. However, sulfide oxidation consumes more O2 than it can supply CO2, leading to insurmountable imbalances in both carbon and oxygen. In contrast, the oxidation of siderite (FeCO3 proper, as well as other Fe2+-bearing carbonate minerals), produces 4 times more CO2 than it consumes O2 and is a common—although often overlooked—constituent of Archean and Early Proterozoic sedimentary successions. Here we propose that following the initial rise of O2 in the atmosphere, oxidation of siderite provided the necessary carbon for the continued oxidation of sulfides, burial of organic carbon, and, most importantly, accumulation of free O2. The duration and magnitude of the Lomagundi Event were determined by the size of the preexisting Archean siderite reservoir, which was consumed through oxidative weathering. Our proposal helps resolve a long-standing conundrum and advances our understanding of the geologic history of atmospheric O2.

 I think I am going to drop a note to the authors and ask if they have compared the carbon 13 isotopes in the limestones and dolostones to modern ones... or at least to Phanerozoic ones.  Just to potentially rule out this.  ;)

The Paleo Recipe for Complex Life on Earth

Let's step back through deep time to consider an intriguing event. One which has been written about, but far from sufficiently and its existence could have some pretty profound implications about Earth and life's history.

 

Looking back to the Precambrian.  

The Earth is racked by global glaciations.  Ones which have been called the Snowball Earth.  They stretch over the entire planet from the poles through the equator.  There is some dispute whether or not the oceans were completely frozen over (a slushball earth vs snowball), but the glaciations are acknowledged as real.

The monstrous glaciation is understood to have been triggered by a sudden drop in the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.  This, in turn, is believed to have been caused by photosynthetic organisms drawing down the CO2 levels while spiking the oxygen levels (relatively speaking).  Yes, the snowball earth events are, like in the Eocene's Azolla Event, examples of biogenic climate change.

Within 100 million years of the end of the Snowball Earth complex life arose.  Except it would vanish from the fossil record, probably having gone extinct and changing the biological fate of the Earth.

Wait.  You thought I was talking about the Cryogenian and Ediacaran?

After all, the Cryogenian's Marinoan Glaciation (or maybe Sturtian or Kaigas), NeoProterozoic Oxygenation Event, Ediacaran with its biota and then Cambrian do parallel all of the above.  Except that complex life is obviously still around and the Phanerozoic is quite biologically diverse, to say the least.

But, no, despite the parallels, I am not talking about the rise of modern complex life.  Rather I am talking about events which took place more than a billion years earlier, during the PaleoProterozoic.

Oxygen, Glaciers and Complex Life, oh my!

There has been up talk of the Great Oxygenation Event.  This is when life puped out oxygen in sufficiently large quantities oxygen were poured into the atmosphere by photosynthetic life, namely something like the cyanobacteria.  This may have been one of the first mass extinctions because obligate anaerobes cannot survive in the presence of oxygen, for one, and for the second, it radically changed the climate.

By pulling down the carbon dioxide and releasing free oxygen, the cyanobacteria tipped the earth from a greenhouse climate to an icehouse climate.  This in turn, without the 'modern' feedback loops, turned into what is suspected to be the earliest Snowball Earth, during the Siderian and Rhyacian.  This glaciation, called the Huronian, lasted (as far as we can tell) for 300 million years, from the mid Siderian to about 50 million years before the end of the Rhyacian. 

In 2010, a remarkable find was brought to light from Gabon, Africa.  There appeared to be colonial, or even possibly true complex life in the Rhyacian.  Further study of the fossils strongly suggested they were some form of complex life.  However, strangely, not like our complex life which seems to have arisen piecemeal during the Cryogenian into the Ediacaran and exploded during the Cambrian.  The timing of the appearance of the Francevillian Biota

Reflections in the Mirror: Parallel Events, Evolution? | ?noitulovE, stnevE lellaraP

The Francevillian Biota has several biotic members.  Its easy to see some physical parallels between the Ediacaran Biota members and those above.  There are forms which are reminicent but not the same as the Edaicaran discoid, Dickinsonia and rangeomorph fossils.  They are not the same, by any means, but the suggested parallels are interesting.  No, I am not saying the Ediacaran forms evolved form the Rhyacian!  Quite the contrary!  Rather, I am suggesting there is an event of parallel evolution taking place.  Independently.  Form follows function.  However, this is more suggestively so than closely (unlike the classic of sharks, ichthyosaurs and dolphins), but what's even better of a parallel is the events which led up to the both the evolution of the Francevillian and Ediacaran Biotas.

The events of the two different time frames, Siderian/Rhyacian & Cryogenian/Ediacaran (global glaciations, O2 spike and the seeming rise of complex life) is pretty exciting.  Is this what it would take to have Earth-evolved life to produce complex life forms?  Perhaps.  Its worth looking into.  However, the huge question becomes, if complex life evolved 2.05 billion years why is there a hiatus for over a billion years.  Those years sometimes being called the Boring Billion (more properly, the MesoProterozoic).  During that time frame, we have evidence of microbial life, but nothing like an animal or plant.  So?  What happened?  It must have gone extinct.  There are two possible explanations, assuming this is in fact complex life in the Francevillian Biota.

One is the Francevillian Biota didn't produce a proper Gaia-like feedback system and they tipped over into a feedback loop which caused them to ruin their own environment.  Or rather they ran out of their nutrients.  Or failed to develop a self sustaining ecosystem.  Its a biological failure then.  Producing Gaia is hard.  At best its 50-50 proposition of true.

The second possible reason is even more compelling.  Why?  Because of the time and energy involved.  27 million years after the Francevillian fossils were deposited, one of the biggest asteroid impacts the Earth has seen since the Late Heavy Bombardment took place.  And 150 million years after that, a comparable asteroid smashed into the world.  Both of these impacts dwarf the Chicxulub Crater.

Say Hello to my Little Friend.  Ahem, BFG.  Twice.

It has already been established giant impacts can cause mass extinctions.  The impact in Chicxulub, Mexico 66 million years ago, wiped out 50% of life on the planet.  The KT or K-Pg Extinction made way for our modern ecology and our own evolution.  The Chicxulub impact was the equivalent of over 100 teratons of explosives, roughly over 1000 times the combined nuclear arsenals on Earth.  There are two impacts which followed the Francevillian Biota which were significantly more powerful.

The Vredefort Impact took place 'first.'   The astrobleme for Vredefort is in southern Africa and dates to 2.023 billion years ago.  The crater it left was 300 km in diameter: Chicxulub is 'only' 180 km in diameter.  The impact would have been significantly more energetic than Chicxulub.  This is guaranteed mass extinction.  In fact, its a significantly more devastating mass extinction because the Francevillian Biota is almost assuredly younger and less robust than when our lineage dating from the Cryogenian took it in the shorts from Chicxulub.  Had Chicxulub happened before the Cambrian Exoplosion, its probable there wouldn't be anything remotely complex on the planet.  Vredefort was worse.

As if Vredefort was not enough, 150 million years later, circa 1.849 billion years ago, came the Sudbury Impact.  It was of a comparable energy and bollide size. If any thing complex survived the Vredefort, which would be doubtful, the Sudbury almost assuredly finished them off.  The two impacts, btw, bracket the Orosirian Period.

Interestingly, a paper which just came out supports the scenario.  Although the authors are studying about two different impacts at an earlier time, they found geological evidence of the upper sea boiling from the devastation wrought.  The Sudbury and the Vredefort Impacts both have the potential to done the exact same thing.  Given the Francevillian Biota was a shallow water assemblage, its entirely likely they were wiped out in one or both of the events.

The surviving largely microbial life would trundle on in a relatively stable environment for another billion years thence.

Every Earth Deserves a Second Chance

Assuming the Francevillian Biota was, in fact, complex life, Earth would need another billion years until the Ediacaran to take another stab at complex life.  This time it would be successful and continue into the present, despite mass extinctions.  Fortunately, there have been no bollides of comparable mass or energy as the Vredefort or Sudbury since.  Their descendents are us.

The hypothesis we had extremely distant cousins makes for some interesting conjectures.

• Under the right stimulus, it seems complex life arises when working with earth evolved organisms.  However, it does seem to require those proper chain of events.  

• Additionally, as soon as life had a chance, it also appears to (inadvertently) triggered the events which led up to complex life.  This, in turn, suggests complex life may be common where it is possible to evolve.  

• However, it is also possible to wipe out complex life without requiring too crazy of events (or intelligent intervention).

• It seems likely Mars will definitely not have any traces of complex life.  If the Earth was still getting battered at 1.85 billion years ago, that is well past the point when Mars' atmosphere thinned.  Additionally, the Hellas Basin is an impact crater which is 2,300 km in diameter.  If Vredefort was tough, then Hellas was hell and the likelihood of anything surviving through that impact is almost nil.  The Hellas Impact took place ~3.8 billion years ago.  For that matter, the Argyre Planitia is also another impact basin and it is 1,800 km in diameter, if not as deep as the Hellas.  Its highly unlikely any life survived past these events.  There's a slim chance Earth could have reintroduced life, but by the time the Francevillian Biota arose, Mars had something akin to its present atmosphere.

The story outlined above, the hypothesis which I've hung out there in my first paleo post in some time, hangs together quite well in view of the science.  However, it needs to be tested.  We can only test the hypothesis by finding other locales similar to Franceville.  Likewise, a lot of detailed examination of the Francevillian Biota as known is needed. Likewise, deposits from after Vredefort and in similar paleoenvironmental conditions are needed from the Orosirian.  

Then what's needed is to understand why the MesoProterozoic didn't have any glaciations and, thus, did not produce the complex life as we (squintingly) know it earlier.

Cyanobacteria: The Great Hub of Anaerobe and Obligate Aerobe Genomes

Deciphering Primordial Cyanobacterial Genome Functions from Protein Network Analysis

Authors:

Harel et al

Abstract:

The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) ∼2.4 billion years ago resulted from the accumulation of oxygen by the ancestors of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria continue to play a significant role in primary production and in regulating the global marine and limnic nitrogen cycles. Relatively little is known, however, about the evolutionary history and gene content of primordial cyanobacteria. To address these issues, we used protein similarity networks, containing proteomes from 48 cyanobacteria as the test group, and reference proteomes from 84 microbes representing four distinct metabolic groups from most reducing to most oxidizing: methanogens, obligate anaerobes (nonmethanogenic), facultative aerobes, and obligate aerobes. These four metabolic groups represent extant bioinformatic proxies for ancient redox chemistries, extending from an anoxic origin through the GOE and ultimately to obligate aerobes. Analysis of the network metric degree showed a strong relationship between cyanobacteria and obligate anaerobes, from which cyanobacteria presumably arose, for core functions that include translation, photosynthesis, energy conservation, and environmental interactions. These data were used to reconstruct primordial functions in cyanobacteria that included nine gene families involved in photosynthesis, hydrogenases, and proteins involved in defense from environmental stress. The presence of 60% of these genes in both reaction center I (RC-I) and RC-II-type bacteria may be explained by selective loss of either RC in the evolutionary history of some photosynthetic lineages. Finally, the network reveals that cyanobacteria occupy a unique position among prokaryotes as a hub between anaerobes and obligate aerobes.

Evidence of Pre Great Oxidation Event Aerobic Photosynthesis

Selenium isotopes support free O2 in the latest Archean

Authors:

Stüeken et al

Abstract:

Selenium (Se) undergoes redox transformations and isotopic fractionations at relatively high redox potentials and could therefore provide insight into changes in oceanic and atmospheric O2 levels over Earth's history. We test this idea with Se data from the 2.5 Ga Mount McRae Shale (Hamersley Basin, Australia), which records temporary enrichments in abundances and isotopes of other redox-sensitive elements indicating a "whiff of oxygen" in Earth's atmosphere before the Great Oxidation Event. Se isotopic ratios expressed as δ82/78Se and abundances relative to crustal background show significant positive excursions of up to 1.1‰ and an enrichment 13 times above background, respectively, overlapping with excursions in Mo and N isotopes and abundances. Because Se has a relatively high redox potential and photosynthetic oxidation pathways are unknown, our data thus suggest that Se was mobilized by free O2 during this interval. The isotopic fractionation likely occurred during transport of Se oxyanions from the site of weathering to the outer shelf. Although O2 could have been produced locally on land and may not necessarily have increased in the global atmosphere, our results strengthen the inference of an early origin of oxygenic photosynthesis long before the Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event. This is the first report of a Se isotope excursion in the Precambrian rock record, and it confirms that Se isotopes can serve as a useful redox proxy in deep time.

The Emergence of Continents was Crucial for Great Oxidation Event

Benthic perspective on Earth’s oldest evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis

Authors:

Lalonde et al

Abstract:

The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) is currently viewed as a protracted process during which atmospheric oxygen increased above ∼10−5 times the present atmospheric level (PAL). This threshold represents an estimated upper limit for sulfur isotope mass-independent fractionation (S-MIF), an Archean signature of atmospheric anoxia that begins to disappear from the rock record at 2.45 Ga. However, an increasing number of papers have suggested that the timing for oxidative continental weathering, and by conventional thinking the onset of atmospheric oxygenation, was hundreds of million years earlier than previously thought despite the presence of S-MIF. We suggest that this apparent discrepancy can be resolved by the earliest oxidative-weathering reactions occurring in benthic and soil environments at profound redox disequilibrium with the atmosphere, such as biological soil crusts and freshwater microbial mats covering riverbed, lacustrine, and estuarine sediments. We calculate that oxygenic photosynthesis in these millimeter-thick ecosystems provides sufficient oxidizing equivalents to mobilize sulfate and redox-sensitive trace metals from land to the oceans while the atmosphere itself remained anoxic with its attendant S-MIF signature. As continental freeboard increased significantly between 3.0 and 2.5 Ga, the chemical and isotopic signatures of benthic oxidative weathering would have become more globally significant from a mass-balance perspective. These observations help reconcile evidence for pre-GOE oxidative weathering with the history of atmospheric chemistry, and support the plausible antiquity of a terrestrial biosphere populated by cyanobacteria well before the GOE.

Declinate in Oceanic Sulfate During Calymmian MesoProterozoic

Decline in oceanic sulfate levels during the early Mesoproterozoic

Authors:

Luo et al

Abstract:

Multiple-sulfur isotope compositions (32S, 33S, 34S and 36S) were analyzed for paired carbonate-associated sulfate (CAS) and disseminated pyrite (PY) from the ∼1.6-Ga Gaoyuzhuang Formation of the North China Craton to reconstruct the history of sulfate levels in Proterozoic oceans. The 200-m-thick study interval yielded relatively constant values for δ34SCAS (13.0 ± 1.8‰), δ34SPY (8.0 ± 2.3‰), and Δ34SCAS-PY (∼5‰), as well as relatively constant Δ33S (0 ± 0.05‰) and Δ36S (0.35 ± 0.15‰) for both CAS and pyrite. Limited variation in δ34SPY and slightly lower Δ33S of pyrite relative to CAS suggest water-column precipitation of pyrite. Limited fractionation of sulfur during microbial sulfate reduction (as documented by Δ34SCAS-PY) implies low seawater sulfate concentrations in the early Mesoproterozoic ocean. We quantitatively constrained paleo-seawater [SO42−] using a novel modeling approach based on measured values of Δ34SCAS-PY and ∂δ34SCAS/∂t(max). For the study unit, Δ34SCAS-PY is 5.4 ± 1.4‰ (n = 17), and ∂δ34SCAS/∂t(max) is 6.8-34‰ Myr−1 based on sedimentation rates of 30-150 m Myr−1. These data indicate early Mesoproterozoic seawater [SO42−] of ∼ < 0.1 to 0.35 mM (with a maximum possible concentration of 1.8 mM), a range that is lower and more tightly constrained than earlier estimates for the Mesoproterozoic. Compilation of published data suggests that low seawater sulfate concentrations began about ∼1.7 Ga and persisted until at least the mid-Mesoproterozoic (∼1.4 Ga), documenting a distinct early Mesoproterozoic perturbation in ocean chemistry that may have been related to a decline in atmospheric pO2 after Great Oxidation Event I.

A Continguous (!?!!!) Section Across the Great Oxidation Event From Siderian/Rhyacian PaleoProterozoic Australia

Sedimentology of the Paleoproterozoic Kungarra Formation, Turee Creek Group, Western Australia: A conformable record of the transition from early to modern Earth

Authors:

Van Kranendonk et al

Abstract:

This paper presents the first, detailed sedimentological analysis of the Paleoproterozoic Kungarra Formation, the lowermost of three formations comprising the Turee Creek Group in Western Australia, which was deposited across the rise in atmospheric oxygen (the Great Oxidation Event, or GOE) and the transition from early to modern Earth.

The data show that the Kungarra Formation has a gradational, conformable lower contact with underlying banded iron-formation of the Hamersley Group and predominantly comprises an upward-shallowing succession from deepwater shales and siltstones, through rippled fine-grained sandstones and stromatolitic carbonates, to tidal flat deposits that immediately underlie coastal–fluvial deposits of the overlying Koolbye Formation.

At the base of the Kungarra Formation is a gradual transition from alternating units of magnetic green shale and thin units of banded iron-formation that pass upsection to units of non-magnetic shale and ferruginous chert and grey chert, reflecting a gradual loss of iron from the world's oceans accompanying the rise of atmospheric oxygen. A falling stage systems tract is recognised above this transition in the Hardey Syncline area, capped by stromatolitic carbonates and a period of exposure marked by an erosional unconformity and carbonate beachrock. Two glacio-eustatic cycles are recognised within the middle to upper parts of the Kungarra Formation, each of which is marked by the rapid onset of falling systems tracts and characterised by falling systems tracts during and following diamictite deposition.

Stratigraphic data are used to infer a depobasin filled by a sediment wedge prograding from southeast to northwest, in contrast to previous models of a north-northeastward deepening foreland basin. The lack of seismites or internal unconformities within the formation precludes a foredeep setting. Rather, deposition is interpreted as having occurred within an intracratonic basin, with detritus sourced from erosion of uplifted bedrock to the southeast.

Fresh Water Lakes Played an Important Role in the Proterozoic Great Oxygenation Events

Enhanced organic carbon burial in large Proterozoic lakes: Implications for atmospheric oxygenation

Authors:

Spinks et al

Abstract:

The burial of organic carbon in sedimentary systems has been a fundamental part of the carbon cycle throughout the geological record, and was instrumental in major oxygenations of the atmosphere in the early Palaeoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic. While much focus has been placed on the burial of carbon in Precambrian marine carbonate and organic carbon-rich rocks deposited around the time of these major oxygenations, such deposits yield little information on the evolution of the atmosphere in the significant time between. There is, however, growing evidence from terrestrially deposited sediments to suggest the surface environment may have been at least intermittently well-oxygenated from the late Mesoproterozoic. Hence Proterozoic sediments deposited in terrestrial near-surface environments are useful targets for the study of atmospheric evolution during a time which is hitherto poorly understood.

Thus far, little attention has been paid to the contribution of large lakes and intercontinental basins to the global burial of organic carbon, and thus the progressive oxygenation of the atmosphere, especially given that the highest rates of organic carbon burial in modern aquatic environments occur in lacustrine settings, in stark contrast to the low rates observed in the contemporary marine realm. Here, we report high burial rates of organic carbon in large lacustrine systems of late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic age, which are comparable with modern lacustrine systems, and significantly higher than modern and ancient marine deposits. These data emphasise the significance of lakes as a global repository for organic carbon, and imply Proterozoic lakes were at least as efficient, and perhaps as important, as modern lakes in the global burial of organic carbon. Such findings suggest large Proterozoic lakes and epicontinental basins played a crucial role in the progressive oxygenation of the atmosphere before the major Neoproterozoic oxygenation.

Was There a MesoProterozoic Oxygen Crash After the Great Oxidation Event?

Low Mid-Proterozoic atmospheric oxygen levels and the delayed rise of animals

Authors:

Planavsky et al

Abstract:

The oxygenation of Earth’s surface fundamentally altered global biogeochemical cycles and ultimately paved the way for the rise of metazoans at the end of the Proterozoic. However, current estimates for atmospheric oxygen (O2) levels during the billion years leading up to this time vary widely. On the basis of chromium (Cr) isotope data from a suite of Proterozoic sediments from China, Australia, and North America, interpreted in the context of data from similar depositional environments from Phanerozoic time, we find evidence for inhibited oxidation of Cr at Earth’s surface in the mid-Proterozoic (1.8 to 0.8 billion years ago). These data suggest that atmospheric O2 levels were at most 0.1% of present atmospheric levels. Direct evidence for such low O2 concentrations in the Proterozoic helps explain the late emergence and diversification of metazoans.

Fossil Evidence of Iron Oxidizing Bacteria From the Great Oxidation Event

Fossil evidence of iron-oxidizing chemolithotrophy linked to phosphogenesis in the wake of the Great Oxidation Event

Authors:

Crosby et al

Abstract:

The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere allowed for the diversification of metabolisms to include those that rely on oxygen and its derivatives. For example, chemolithotrophic oxidation of sulfide and iron both require oxygen or nitrate as terminal electron acceptors. A growing number of oxygen-utilizing chemolithotrophs are known to accumulate intracellular polyphosphate as an energy reserve that allows them to adapt to the fluctuating redox conditions in their distinctive-gradient habitats. Polyphosphate is also thought to play an important role in the formation of phosphatic mineral deposits. Here we present fossil evidence of iron-oxidizing bacteria preserved as filamentous iron oxides within phosphatic Paleoproterozoic stromatolites. The filaments include twisted stalks similar to those produced by modern iron-oxidizing bacteria that are known to metabolize polyphosphate and inhabit steep redox gradients. Fossil iron-oxidizing bacteria preserved within some of the oldest known phosphorites serve as indicators of O2-Fe(II) gradients that may have supported microbially mediated phosphogenesis via polyphosphate metabolism and/or an active iron redox pump.

Was There a Great Oxidation Event (or two) During the MesoArchean?

Oxygenation of the Archean atmosphere: New paleosol constraints from eastern India

Authors:

Mukhopadhyay et al

Abstract:

It is widely believed that atmospheric oxygen saturation rose from less than 10–5 present atmospheric level (PAL) in the Archean to greater than 10–2 PAL at the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) at ca. 2.4 Ga, but it is unclear if any earlier oxygenation events occurred. Here we report U-Pb zircon data indicating that a pyrophyllite-bearing paleosol, from Keonjhar in the Precambrian Singhbhum Craton of eastern India, formed between 3.29 and 3.02 Ga, making it one of very few known Archean paleosols globally. Field and geochemical evidence suggests that the upper part of the paleosol was eroded prior to unconformable deposition of an overlying sequence of shallow-marine siliciclastic sediments. A negative cerium anomaly within the currently preserved level of the paleosol indicates that ancient oxidative weathering occurred in the original upper soil profile. The presence of redox-sensitive detrital uraninite and pyrite together with a complete absence of pyrophyllite in the overlying sediments indicate that the mineralogical and geochemical features of the paleosol were established prior to the unconformable deposition of the sediments and are not related to subsequent diagenetic or hydrothermal effects. We suggest that a transient atmospheric oxygenation event occurred at least 600 m.y. prior to the GOE and ∼60 m.y. prior to a previously documented Archean oxygenation event. We propose that several pulsed and short-lived oxygenation events are likely to have occurred prior to the GOE, and that these changes to atmospheric composition arose due to the presence of organisms capable of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Evidence of Oxygenated Marine Bottom Waters at the NeoArchean/PaleoProterozoic Boundary?!?!

Petrology And Geochemistry Of The Wangjiazhuang Banded Iron Formation And Associated Supracrustal Rocks From The Wutai Greenstone Belt In The North China Craton: Implications For Their Origin And Tectonic Setting

Authors:

Wang et al

Abstract:

The Wutai greenstone belt (WGB) is one of the most extensively studied greenstone belts in China. Together with the Hengshan and Fuping complexes, these three associations compose the central segment of the Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO) in the North China Craton (NCC). The Wangjiazhuang banded iron formation (BIF) is located in the bottom of the Jingangku Formation of the WGB. The associated supracrustal rocks consist of meta-basalts (amphibolites), meta-felsic volcanic rocks (leptynite) and metapelites (mica schist), which have experienced amphibolite-facies metamorphism. Amphibolites are commonly intercalated with the BIF. SIMS zircon U-Pb analyses on amphibolites suggest that the Wangjiazhuang BIF was formed at ca. 2543 ± 4 Ma. Combined with most Neoarchean Algoma-type BIFs in the NCC, these features indicate that a significant tectothermal event of the NCC have occurred at ∼2.5 Ga. Mineral assemblages of the Wangjiazhuang BIF are composed of quartz, magnetite, amphibole, and minor garnet, pyrite and calcite. The precursor deposits of this BIF were likely ferric-oxyhydroxides, fine-grained carbonate oozes, silicate phases rich in Al-Ca-Mg-Fe and amorphous silica. The appearance of garnet and ferro-pargasite, high concentrations of Al2O3, HFSEs, Sc, and positive correlations among Al2O3, TiO2, HFSEs and REE indicate that there was a significant terrigenous input. Even so, the Wangjiazhuang BIF samples display distinctively seawater-like REE + Y profiles, characterized by positive La and Y anomalies and HREE enrichment relative to LREE in PAAS-normalized REE diagrams. Consistently positive Eu anomalies are also observed, which are typically from high-T hydrothermal fluids. In addition, the true negative Ce anomalies recorded in the Wangjiazhuang BIF might indicate the onset of bottom-water oxidation at the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, at least in restricted basins. Amphibolites have geochemical affinity with both MORB- and arc-like components, and the trace element characteristics of leptynites are also consistent with a subduction zone signature. These features suggest that the Wangjiazhuang BIF was deposited in a back-arc basin. Oceanic subduction, coupled with contemporary depleted mantle upwelling related to back-arc basin extension, can account for the typical interaction between these two components.