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The rise of algae in Cryogenian oceans and the emergence of animals
Abstract
The transition from dominant bacterial to eukaryotic marine primary productivity was one of the most profound ecological revolutions in the Earth's history, reorganizing the distribution of carbon and nutrients in the water column and increasing energy flow to higher trophic levels. But the causes and geological timing of this transition, as well as possible links with rising atmospheric oxygen levels and the evolution of animals, remain obscure. Here we present a molecular fossil record of eukaryotic steroids demonstrating that bacteria were the only notable primary producers in the oceans before the Cryogenian period (720-635 million years ago). Increasing steroid diversity and abundance marks the rapid rise of marine planktonic algae (Archaeplastida) in the narrow time interval between the Sturtian and Marinoan 'snowball Earth' glaciations, 659-645 million years ago. We propose that the incumbency of cyanobacteria was broken by a surge of nutrients supplied by the Sturtian deglaciation. The 'Rise of Algae' created food webs with more efficient nutrient and energy transfers, driving ecosystems towards larger and increasingly complex organisms. This effect is recorded by the concomitant appearance of biomarkers for sponges and predatory rhizarians, and the subsequent radiation of eumetazoans in the Ediacaran period.
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“Further, possible animal (sponge) organic biomarkers have been identified in the same pre-Cryogenian time slice (Brocks et al., 2016, 2017; Zumberge et al., 2020).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“An equally intriguing possibility lies with claims for the earliest reliable organic biomarkers for ancient eukaryotes around 800 Ma (Brocks et al., 2016, 2017; Zumberge et al., 2020; and references cited therein)”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“Still other studies highlight the importance of snowball Earth glaciation, through the sheer magnitude of related weathering processes (Hoffman et al., 1998, 2017), as a trigger for high nutrient fluxes to the oceans, associated primary production, O2 release (Planavsky et al., 2010; Sahoo et al., 2012), and eukaryotic diversification (Brocks et al., 2017).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“And, in what may be the most important tie point in this discussion, organic biomarker evidence for eukaryotic life (steranes), when vetted for miscues linked to contamination, does not appear until ∼820 Ma (Brocks et al., 2017; Brocks, 2018; Zumberge et al., 2020)—despite many searches in diverse paleoenvironmental settings for earlier occurrences (e.g., Nguyen et al., 2019).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“The interglacial is the same interval that produced the earliest records of animals (sponges; Love et al., 2009; Love and Summons, 2015), as well as diversification among eukaryotes more generally, including emergence of the earliest predatory rhizarians (Brocks et al., 2017)—a group that includes radiolaria and foraminifera.”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“Some recent organic geochemical data suggest that bacteria continued to dominate primary production until the interglacial between the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations (Brocks et al., 2017) starting at roughly 660 Ma, while other data indicate a proliferation of eukaryotes starting closer to 800–750 Ma (Brocks et al., 2017; Brocks, 2018; Isson et al., 2018).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Brocks et al., 2017
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Metadata
- Authors
- Brocks, J. J., Jarrett, A. J. M., Sirantoine, E., Hallmann, C., Hoshino, Y., & Liyanage, T.
- Affiliations
- Australian National University (AU)
- University of Bremen (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Brocks, Jochen J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2017-08
- Volume
- 548
- Issue
- 7669
- Pages
- 578-581
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2749763761
- Cited by
- 574
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 48 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 68 · 2021: 80 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 11
- FWCI
- 38.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Publication Database GFZ (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian National University
- Australian Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Protist diversity and phylogeny
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- Cryogenian, Ediacaran, molecular fossils, Archaeplastida, phytoplankton, Snowball Earth, Sturtian glaciation, Marinoan glaciation, cyanobacteria, atmospheric oxygen, food webs, origin of animals
- MeSH terms
- Cyanobacteria, Animals, Fossils, Oceans and Seas, Phosphorus, Biomarkers, Food Chain, Ice Cover, History, Ancient, Eukaryota, Carbon Cycle
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