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Title: Cellular remains in a ~3.42-billion-year-old subseafloor hydrothermal environment

Journal Article · · Science Advances
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10];  [11]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [12];  [11]; ORCiD logo [13]
  1. Università di Bologna (Italy); University of Johannesburg (South Africa)
  2. Univ. of Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France)
  3. Univ. of Grenoble Alpes (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France); Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (France)
  4. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
  5. Università degli Studi di Torino (Italy)
  6. WITec GmbH, Ulm (Germany)
  7. FBK—Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento (Italy)
  8. Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Torino (Italy)
  9. Univ. of Grenoble Alpes (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France)
  10. Università di Bologna (Italy)
  11. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France)
  12. Université de Lorraine (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France); Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), Nancy (France)
  13. University of Johannesburg (South Africa)

Subsurface habitats on Earth host an extensive extant biosphere and likely provided one of Earth’s earliest microbial habitats. Although the site of life’s emergence continues to be debated, evidence of early life provides insights into its early evolution and metabolic affinity. Here, we present the discovery of exceptionally well-preserved, ~3.42-billion-year-old putative filamentous microfossils that inhabited a paleo-subseafloor hydrothermal vein system of the Barberton greenstone belt in South Africa. The filaments colonized the walls of conduits created by low-temperature hydrothermal fluid. Combined with their morphological and chemical characteristics as investigated over a range of scales, they can be considered the oldest methanogens and/or methanotrophs that thrived in an ultramafic volcanic substrate.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); French National Research Agency (ANR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); European Union’s Horizon 2020
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; 618657
OSTI ID:
1815573
Journal Information:
Science Advances, Vol. 7, Issue 29; ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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