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Science 28 January 1994:
Vol. 263. no. 5146, pp. 494 - 498
DOI: 10.1126/science.263.5146.494
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Articles

Life on Land in the Precambrian

Robert J. Horodyski 1 and L. Paul Knauth 2

1 Department of Geology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118
2 Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404

Microfossils have been discovered in cavity-fill and replacement silica that occurs between chert-breccia clasts in 1200-million-year-old paleokarst at the top of the Mescal Limestone, central Arizona, and in sim800-million-year-old paleokarst at the top of the Beck Spring Dolomite, southeastern California. Microbial communities on Precambrian (>550 million years ago) land may have been extensive enough to affect weathering, erosion, sedimentation, and geochemical processes.

Submitted on July 6, 1993
Accepted on December 22, 1993


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