Geochemical constraints on the Hadean environment from mineral fingerprints of prokaryotes.

ABSTRACT: The environmental conditions on the Earth before 4 billion years ago are highly uncertain, largely because of the lack of a substantial rock record from this period. During this time interval, known as the Hadean, the young planet transformed from an uninhabited world to the one capable of supporting, and inhabited by the first living cells. These cells formed in a fluid environment they could not at first control, with homeostatic mechanisms developing only later. It is therefore possible that present-day organisms retain some record of the primordial fluid in which the first cells formed. Here we present new data on the elemental compositions and mineral fingerprints of both Bacteria and Archaea, using these data to constrain the environment in which life formed. The cradle solution that

SUBMITTER: Novoselov AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5479841 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature