Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon
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Significance: Evidence for carbon cycling or biologic activity can be derived from carbon isotopes, because a high 12 C/ 13 C ratio is characteristic of biogenic carbon due to the large isotopic fractionation associated with enzymatic carbon fixation. The earliest materials measured for carbon isotopes at 3.8 Ga are isotopically light, and thus potentially biogenic. Because Earth’s known rock record extends only to ∼4 Ga, earlier periods of history are accessible only through mineral grains deposited in later sediments. We report 12 C/ 13 C of graphite preserved in 4.1-Ga zircon. Its complete encasement in crack-free, undisturbed zircon demonstrates that it is not contamination from more recent geologic processes. Its 12 C-rich isotopic signature may be evidence for the origin of life on Earth by 4.1 Ga.
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Graphite inside a 4.1-Ga-old zircon has a biogenic-like δ13C of −24 per mil, although lack of context means an abiotic origin cannot be eliminated.
“graphite inside a 4.1-Ga-old zircon has a biogenic-like δ13C of −24 per mil (‰) (19), although lack of context means that an abiotic origin cannot be eliminated.”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [19]
Life evolved relatively early in Earth history, with putative evidence pointing to a biosphere as early as 4.1 Ga and more convincingly by 3.7 Ga.
“It is now generally accepted that life evolved relatively early in Earth history, with putative evidence pointing to the existence of a biosphere as early 4.1 Ga (see Bell et al., 2015) and more convincingly by 3.7 Ga.”
From Trace elements at the intersection of marine biological and geochemical evolution (2016) · cites this paper as Bell et al., 2015
The 12C-enrichment in these inclusions may be taken as plausible unequivocal evidence for microbial life on Earth before 4.1 Ga.
“The 12 C-enrichment found within these inclusions may thus be taken as plausible unequivocal evidence for the existence of microbial life on Earth before 4.1 Ga, during the epoch of comet and asteroid impacts.”
From Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? (2018) · cites this paper as Bell et al., 2015
Detrital zircons 4.1 Ga from the Jack Hills region of Western Australia contain micron-sized graphite spheres with an isotopic signature of biogenic carbon.
“Further, detrital zircons 4.1 Ga, discovered in rocks belonging to a geological outcrop in the Jack Hills region of Western Australia, have been found to contain micron-sized graphite spheres with an isotopic signature of biogenic carbon (Bell et al., 2015).”
From Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? (2018) · cites this paper as Bell et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Bell, E. A., Boehnke, P., Harrison, T. M., & Mao, W. L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2015-10-19
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 47
- Pages
- 14518-14521
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4664351
- OpenAlex
- W2161420691
- Cited by
- 474
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 63 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 31.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Simons Foundation (293529)
- National Science Foundation (NSF-EAR-0948724, NSF-EAR-1055454)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- biogenic carbon, detrital zircon, graphite inclusions, carbon isotopes, early Earth biosphere, origin of life, Jack Hills, Archean
- MeSH terms
- Carbon, Zirconium, Silicates, Earth, Planet
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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