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Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon.

ABSTRACT: Evidence of life on Earth is manifestly preserved in the rock record. However, the microfossil record only extends to ? 3.5 billion years (Ga), the chemofossil record arguably to ? 3.8 Ga, and the rock record to 4.0 Ga. Detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia range in age up to nearly 4.4 Ga. From a population of over 10,000 Jack Hills zircons, we identified one >3.8-Ga zircon that contains primary graphite inclusions. Here, we report carbon isotopic measurements on these inclusions in a concordant, 4.10 ± 0.01-Ga zircon. We interpret these inclusions as primary due to their enclosure in a crack-free host as shown by transmission X-ray microscopy and their crystal habit. Their ?(13)CPDB of -24 ± 5‰ is consistent with a biogenic origin and may be evidence that a terrestrial biosphere had emerged by 4.1 Ga, or ? 300 My earlier than has been previously proposed.

SUBMITTER: Bell EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4664351 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon.

Bell Elizabeth A EA Boehnke Patrick P Harrison T Mark TM Mao Wendy L WL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20151019 47

Evidence of life on Earth is manifestly preserved in the rock record. However, the microfossil record only extends to ∼ 3.5 billion years (Ga), the chemofossil record arguably to ∼ 3.8 Ga, and the rock record to 4.0 Ga. Detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia range in age up to nearly 4.4 Ga. From a population of over 10,000 Jack Hills zircons, we identified one >3.8-Ga zircon that contains primary graphite inclusions. Here, we report carbon isotopic measurements on these inclusions ...[more]

PMID: 26483481

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