How ancient microbes created massive ore deposits, set the stage for early life on Earth
New research in Science Advances is uncovering the vital role that Precambrian-eon microbes may have played in two of the early Earth’s biggest mysteries. University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers, and collaborators from the universities of Alberta, Tübingen, Autònoma de Barcelona and the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that ancestors of modern bacteria cultured from an iron-rich lake in Democratic Republic of Congo could have been key to keeping Earth’s dimly lit early climate warm, and in forming the world’s largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago. The bacteria have special chemical and physical features that in the complete absence of oxygen allow them to convert energy from sunlight into rusty iron minerals and into cellular biomass. The biomass ultimately causes the production of the potent greenhouse gas methane by other microbes. “Using modern geomicrobiological techniques, we found that certain bacteria have surfaces which allow them to expel iron minerals, making it possible for...