Sulfur isotopes of hydrothermal vent fossils and insights into microbial sulfur cycling within a lower Paleozoic (Ordovician-early Silurian) vent community.

ABSTRACT: Symbioses between metazoans and microbes involved in sulfur cycling are integral to the ability of animals to thrive within deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments; the development of such interactions is regarded as a key adaptation in enabling animals to successfully colonize vents. Microbes often colonize the surfaces of vent animals and, remarkably, these associations can also be observed intricately preserved by pyrite in the fossil record of vent environments, stretching back to the lower Paleozoic (Ordovician-early Silurian). In non-vent environments, sulfur isotopes are often employed to investigate the metabolic strategies of both modern and fossil organisms, as certain metabolic pathways of microbes, notably sulfate reduction, can produce large sulfur isotope fractionations. Howe

SUBMITTER: Georgieva MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9320992 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature