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Contents Vol 64(1)

Chemical Evidence for the Dawn of Life on Earth

Eva-Maria Krammer A , Sophie Bernad B , G. Matthias Ullmann A , Arthur Hickman C and Pierre Sebban B D E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Structural Biology/Bioinformatics, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, BGI, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.

B Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, Université Paris-Sud 11/CNRS, 91405 cedex, Orsay, France.

C Geological Survey of Western Australia, East Perth, WA 6004, Australia.

D Université des Sciences et des Technologies de Hanoi, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam.

E Corresponding author. Email: pierre.sebban@usth.edu.vn

Australian Journal of Chemistry 64(1) 16-22 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH10427
Submitted: 25 November 2010  Accepted: 15 December 2010   Published: 14 January 2011

Abstract

The dating of the dawn of life on Earth is a difficult task, requiring an accumulation of evidences from many different research fields. Here we shall summarize findings from the molecular scale (proteins) to cells and photosynthesis-related-fossils (stromatolites from the early and the late Archaean Eon), which indicate that life emerged on Earth 4.2–3.8 Ga (i.e. 4.2–3.8 × 109 years) ago. Among the data supporting this age, the isotopic and palaeontological fingerprints of photosynthesis provide some of the strongest evidence. The reason for this is that photosynthesis, carried out in particular by cyanobacteria, was responsible for massive changes to the Earth’s environment, i.e. the oxygenation of the Earth’s atmosphere and seawater, and the fixation of carbon from atmospheric CO2 in organic material. The possibility of a very early (>3.8 Ga ago) appearance of complex autotrophic organisms, such as cyanobacteria, is a major change in our view of life’s origins.


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