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Science 8 February 1974:
Vol. 183. no. 4124, pp. 514 - 516
DOI: 10.1126/science.183.4124.514
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Articles

Transvaal Stromatolite: First Evidence for the Diversification of Cells about 2.2 x 109 Years Ago

Lois Anne Nagy 1

1 Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson 95721

The well-preserved fossil remnants of filamentous blue-green algae have been found in petrographic thin sections of a dolomitic limestone stromatolite in the Transvaal Sequence of South Africa. Some of these filaments contain enlarged cells which are interpreted as akinetes. A new species and genus, Petraphera vivescenticula, is proposed for this microfossil, which is morphologically similar to the living cyanophyte genus Raphidiopsis. This would constitute the first known occurrence of cell diversification in the Precambrian with an age of about 2.2 x 109 years.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
1400-Million-Year-Old Shale-Facies Microbiota from the Lower Belt Supergroup, Montana.
R. J. Horodyski, R. J. HORODYSKI, and B. BLOESER (1978)
Science 199, 682-684
   Abstract »    PDF »
How Old Are the Eukaryotes?.
J. W. Schopf, J. W. SCHOPF, and D. Z. OEHLER (1976)
Science 193, 47-49
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)