When people start talking about numbers my brain tends to shut down. When I hear science terms it sometimes sounds like mumble jumble. I’m not really sure what all of this means but it sounds interesting even though it smelled rotten. Now if only I could understand it.

Clue To Smell Of Ancient Earth Given By Fossils

Image Caption: 1900 million year old Gunflint chert: Fossils in the black zones give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other, Oxford University and University of Western Australia scientists report. Credit: David Wacey

University of Oxford

Tiny 1,900 million-year-old fossils from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada, give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other and suggest what the ancient Earth would have smelled like.

The fossils, preserved in Gunflint chert, capture ancient microbes in the act of feasting on a cyanobacterium-like fossil called Gunflintia – with the perforated sheaths of Gunflintia being the discarded leftovers of this early meal.

A team, led by Dr David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Bergen University, Norway, and Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University, reports in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the fossil evidence for how this type of feeding on organic matter – called ‘heterotrophy’ – was taking place. They also show that the ancient microbes appeared to prefer to snack on Gunflintia as a ‘tasty morsel’ in preference to another bacterium (Huroniospora).

‘What we call ‘heterotrophy’ is the same thing we do after dinner as the bacteria in our gut break down organic matter,’ said Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences, an author of the paper. ‘Whilst there is chemical evidence suggesting that this mode of feeding dates back 3,500 million years, in this study for the first time we identify how it was happening and ‘who was eating who’. In fact we’ve all experienced modern bacteria feeding in this way as that’s where that ‘rotten egg’ whiff of hydrogen sulfide comes from in a blocked drain. So, rather surprisingly, we can say that life on earth 1,900 million years ago would have smelled a lot like rotten eggs.’

The team analyzed the microscopic fossils, ranging from about 3-15 microns in diameter, using a battery of new techniques and found that one species – a tubular form thought to be the outer sheath of Gunflintia – was more perforated after death than other kinds, consistent with them having been eaten by bacteria.

In some places many of the tiny fossils had been partially or entirely replaced with iron sulfide (‘fool’s gold’) a waste product of heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria that is also a highly visible marker. The team also found that these Gunflintia fossils carried clusters of even smaller (c.1 micron) spherical and rod-shaped bacteria that were seemingly in the process of consuming their hosts.

Dr Wacey said that: ‘recent geochemical analyses have shown that the sulfur-based activities of bacteria can likely be traced back to 3,500 million years or so – a finding reported by our group in Nature Geoscience in 2011. Whilst the Gunflint fossils are only about half as old, they confirm that such bacteria were indeed flourishing by 1,900 million years ago. And that they were also highly particular about what they chose to eat.’

 

Researchers recreate the whiff of Earth 1.9 MILLION years ago – and find it smelt of rotten eggs

• Tiny fossils found containing organisms that ate each other

• This feeding ritual produced chemicals that stank of rotten eggs and blocked drains

By Victoria Woollaston

PUBLISHED: 04:02 EST, 30 April 2013 | UPDATED: 04:06 EST, 30 April 2013

Tiny 1.9 million year old fossils found in rocks around Lake Superior have revealed what the Earth once smelt like.

Researchers studied tiny organisms that ate each other found that the ancient Earth would have smelled like rotten eggs and blocked drains.

A team, led by Dr David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Bergen University, Norway, and Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University, discovered the fossils which had been preserved in Gunflint chert, a group of rocks.

The fossils containedancient microbes frozen in the act of feasting on a cyanobacterium-like fossil called Gunflintia.

This type of feeding on organic matter is called ‘heterotrophy’, and is the same thing humans do after dinners as the bacteria in our guts break down organic matter.

Small, discarded strips of Gunflintia remained as leftover of this meal. 

The fossils also show that the ancient microbes appeared to prefer to snack on Gunflintia as a ‘tasty morsel’ in preference to another bacterium (Huroniospora).

Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences said ‘Whilst there is chemical evidence suggesting that this mode of feeding dates back 3,500 million years, in this study for the first time we identify how it was happening and ‘who was eating who’.

In fact we’ve all experienced modern bacteria feeding in this way as that’s where that ‘rotten egg’ whiff of hydrogen sulfide comes from in a blocked drain.

The team analysed the microscopic fossils, ranging from about 3-15 microns in diameter, using a battery of new techniques.

It found that one species – a tubular form thought to be the outer sheath of Gunflintia – was more perforated after death than other kinds, consistent with them having been eaten by bacteria.

In some places many of the tiny fossils had been partially or entirely replaced with iron sulfide, also known as Fool’s Gold.

Fool’s Gold is a waste product of heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria.

This is also proof about the early feeding habits.

The team also found that these Gunflintia fossils carried clusters of even smaller spherical and rod-shaped bacteria that were seemingly in the process of consuming their hosts.

Dr Wacey said that: ‘recent geochemical analyses have shown that the sulfur-based activities of bacteria can likely be traced back to 3,500 million years or so.

"Whilst the Gunflint fossils are only about half as old, they confirm that such bacteria were indeed flourishing by 1,900 million years ago.

And that they were also highly particular about what they chose to eat.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2316995/What-Earth-smelt-like-1-9-million-years-ago-revealed-rotten-eggs.html#ixzz2S0Bwsj7O
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The Gunflint chert is a group of banded iron formation rocks found in the Gunflint Range of northern Minnesota, and northwestern Ontario along the north shore of Lake Superior.

The black layers in the Gunflit chert house millions of microfossils that are said to be between 1.9 and 2.3 billion years old.

The banded ironstone formation consists of alternating strata of iron oxide-rich layers interbedded with silica-rich zones.