IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v445y2007i7124d10.1038_nature05457.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence of giant sulphur bacteria in Neoproterozoic phosphorites

Author

Listed:
  • Jake V. Bailey

    (Department of Earth Sciences)

  • Samantha B. Joye

    (University of Georgia)

  • Karen M. Kalanetra

    (University of Georgia)

  • Beverly E. Flood

    (University of Southern California)

  • Frank A. Corsetti

    (Department of Earth Sciences)

Abstract

They might be giants The globular microfossils from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation in China are arguably one of the most significant fossil finds in the past decade. They were thought to be animal embryos, based on size and the presence of reductive cell division. If the attribution is correct, 600-million-year-old fossilized cells would provide an important window into early animal evolution. But they may not be embryos at all. The recent discovery of reductive cell division in a modern sulphur bacterium, and their direct association with phosphate minerals, find exact parallels in with the Doushantuo microfossils. Such an accumulation of animal embryos has always been seen as problematic, and no plausible phosphatization mechanism has been offered. The simplest explanation, therefore, is that these are the fossils of giant sulphur bacteria.

Suggested Citation

  • Jake V. Bailey & Samantha B. Joye & Karen M. Kalanetra & Beverly E. Flood & Frank A. Corsetti, 2007. "Evidence of giant sulphur bacteria in Neoproterozoic phosphorites," Nature, Nature, vol. 445(7124), pages 198-201, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:445:y:2007:i:7124:d:10.1038_nature05457
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05457
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05457
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature05457?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:445:y:2007:i:7124:d:10.1038_nature05457. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.