Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 15 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5720, pp. 366 - 367
DOI: 10.1126/science.1107227
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

EVOLUTION:
Life on the Early Earth: A Sedimentary View

Frances Westall

The study of microfossils (fossils of microorganisms) from ancient sediments such as those in Australia and South Africa have yielded much information about life on the early Earth. In her Perspective, Westall discusses the pressing questions that still need to be answered, which include how to distinguish between biogenic (life) and abiogenic (nonlife) signatures left behind in the sediments harboring microfossils

The author is at the Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, Rue Charles Sadron 45071 Orléans cedex 2, France. E-mail: westall{at}cnrs-orleans.fr

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Implications of a 3.472-3.333 Gyr-old subaerial microbial mat from the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa for the UV environmental conditions on the early Earth.
F. Westall, C. E.J de Ronde, G. Southam, N. Grassineau, M. Colas, C. Cockell, and H. Lammer (2006)
Phil Trans R Soc B 361, 1857-1876
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A fresh look at the fossil evidence for early Archaean cellular life.
M. Brasier, N. McLoughlin, O. Green, and D. Wacey (2006)
Phil Trans R Soc B 361, 887-902
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Nanoscale detection of organic signatures in carbonate microbialites.
K. Benzerara, N. Menguy, P. Lopez-Garcia, T.-H. Yoon, J. Kazmierczak, T. Tyliszczak, F. Guyot, and G. E. Brown Jr. (2006)
PNAS 103, 9440-9445
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The 3.466 Ga "Kitty's Gap Chert," an early Archean microbial ecosystem.
F. Westall, S. T. de Vries, W. Nijman, V. Rouchon, B. Orberger, V. Pearson, J. Watson, A. Verchovsky, I. Wright, J.-N. Rouzaud, et al. (2006)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 405, 105-131
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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