The Antiquity of Oxygenic Photosynthesis: Evidence from Stromatolites in Sulphate-Deficient Archaean Lakes
Abstract
The Tumbiana Formation, about 2700 million years old, was largely deposited in ephemeral saline lakes, as judged by the unusual evaporite paragenesis of carbonate and halite with no sulfate. Stromatolites of diverse morphology occur in the lacustrine sediments, some with palimpsest fabrics after erect filaments. These stromatolites were probably accreted by phototropic microbes that, from their habitat in shallow isolated basins with negligible sulfate concentrations, almost certainly metabolized by oxygenic photosynthesis.
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Light organic carbon isotopes and structures like those made by filamentous cyanobacteria found within stromatolites or other microbially induced sedimentary structures are consistent with cyanobacteria by 3.2 to 2.7 Ga ago.
“Light organic carbon isotopes and structures like those made by filamentous cyanobacteria found within stromatolites or other microbially induced sedimentary structures are consistent with cyanobacteria by 3.2 to 2.7 Ga ago (91–94).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [91]
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- Authors
- Buick, R.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Buick, Roger
- ORCID
- Buick, Roger
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 1992-01-03
- Volume
- 255
- Issue
- 5040
- Pages
- 74-77
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W1988950854
- Cited by
- 361
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 8.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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 › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Keywords
- oxygenic photosynthesis, stromatolites, halite, carbonates, lake sediments
- MeSH terms
- Archaea, Australia, Bacteria, Carbonates, Environmental Microbiology, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Fresh Water, Oxidation-Reduction, Paleontology, Photosynthesis, Sodium Chloride, Sulfates, Earth, Planet, Geologic Sediments, Evolution, Planetary
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