Evidence from fluid inclusions for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era

Ueno, Yuichiro; Yamada, Keita; Yoshida, Naohiro; Maruyama, Shigenori; Isozaki, Yukio

doi:10.1038/nature04584

Cited by 572Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsOrigins and Evolution of LifeMethane Hydrates and Related Phenomena

Evidence from fluid inclusions for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era

Ueno, Yuichiro, Yamada, Keita, Yoshida, Naohiro, Maruyama, Shigenori, Isozaki, Yukio·2006·Nature

DOI 10.1038/nature04584

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Abstract

Methanogenic microbes may be one of the most primitive organisms, although it is uncertain when methanogens first appeared on Earth. During the Archaean era (before 2.5 Gyr ago), methanogens may have been important in regulating climate, because they could have provided sufficient amounts of the greenhouse gas methane to mitigate a severely frozen condition that could have resulted from lower solar luminosity during these times. Nevertheless, no direct geological evidence has hitherto been available in support of the existence of methanogens in the Archaean period, although circumstantial evidence is available in the form of approximately 2.8-Gyr-old carbon-isotope-depleted kerogen. Here we report crushing extraction and carbon isotope analysis of methane-bearing fluid inclusions in approximately 3.5-Gyr-old hydrothermal precipitates from Pilbara craton, Australia. Our results indicate that the extracted fluids contain microbial methane with carbon isotopic compositions of less than -56 per thousand included within original precipitates. This provides the oldest evidence of methanogen (> 3.46 Gyr ago), pre-dating previous geochemical evidence by about 700 million years.

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The Archean lower atmosphere is unlikely to have been H2-rich given the antiquity of methanogens.
“The Archean lower atmosphere is unlikely to have been H2-rich given the antiquity of methanogens (23, 51, 197), some of which convert H2 into methane through a net reaction”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [51]
Some methanogens convert H2 into methane.
“The Archean lower atmosphere is unlikely to have been H2-rich given the antiquity of methanogens (23, 51, 197), some of which convert H2 into methane through a net reaction”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [51]
O2 is a product of cyanobacterial photosynthesis, which was lacking in the environment at the origin of the acetyl-CoA pathway and methanogens >3.5 billion years ago.
“First, O2 is a product of cyanobacterial photosynthesis, which was lacking [89] in the environment at the origin of the acetyl‐CoA pathway and methanogens > 3.5 billion years ago [65, 82].”
From Evidence for corrin biosynthesis in the last universal common ancestor (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
Methane isotopes provide the earliest evidence for life on Earth, tracing methanogenesis, hence the acetyl-CoA pathway, hence an ancestral CoFeS, hence corrins, into rocks 3.8 billion years of age.
“Methane isotopes [65] provide the earliest evidence for life on Earth, tracing methanogenesis, hence the acetyl‐CoA pathway, hence an ancestral CoFeS (judging by the homology between bacterial and archaeal CoFeS), hence corrins, into rocks 3.8 billion years of age.”
From Evidence for corrin biosynthesis in the last universal common ancestor (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
Isotope data trace the ultralight isotope signature of the acetyl-CoA pathway back to > 3.5 Ga, consistent with the structural and phylogenetic evidence for the age of corrins.
“Isotope data trace the ultralight isotope signature of the acetyl‐CoA pathway [68] back to > 3.5 Ga [65, 66], consistent with the structural (Fig. 3) and phylogenetic (Fig. 5) evidence for the age of corrins.”
From Evidence for corrin biosynthesis in the last universal common ancestor (2025) · cites this paper as [65]

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Authors: Ueno, Y., Yamada, K., Yoshida, N., Maruyama, S., & Isozaki, Y.
Affiliations: Tokyo Institute of Technology (JP)
The University of Tokyo (JP)
Corresponding author: Ueno, Yuichiro
ORCID: Ueno, Yuichiro
Yamada, Keita
Yoshida, Naohiro
Maruyama, Shigenori
Isozaki, Yukio
Venue: Nature
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2006-03
Volume: 440
Issue: 7083
Pages: 516-519
ISSN: 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
1476-4687
DOI: 10.1038/nature04584
OpenAlex: W2058299864
Cited by: 572
References: 28
Citations by year: 2026: 25 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 61 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 19
FWCI: 19.75
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations: Nature (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Tokyo Tech Research Repository (Tokyo Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
Topics: Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
Keywords: microbial methanogenesis, methanogenic archaea, fluid inclusions, biogenic methane, carbon isotopes, hydrothermal precipitates, Pilbara Craton, early life
MeSH terms: Australia, Environmental Microbiology, Methane, Silicon Dioxide, Geologic Sediments

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Evidence from fluid inclusions for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era

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