Early Earth and Biosignatures
When and where did life first evolve on earth? What did the earliest life forms look like and how did they make a living?
To learn more about the research activity in this theme contact: Nicola McLoughlin
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About Early Earth and Biosignatures
When and where did life first evolve on earth? What did the earliest life forms look like and how did they make a living? These are the types of questions we are working on in the Early Earth and Biosignatures group. Answers to these questions can be found in the chemical and morphological traces or so called "biosignatures" left in the ancient rock record.
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Future directions (from 2011)
Research in the years to come will continue to be focused on the nature and habitat of early microbial ecosystems. We aim to reconstruct the environmental and tectonic controls on the emerging microbial biosphere and to develop new textural and geochemical indicators of past life.
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Ancient rocks reveal carbon-cycling information
Two billion year old rocks are providing information about a period of extreme carbon cycle disruption and the Great Oxidation Event – both critically important to our understanding of Earth’s geological and biological history.
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Geobiology is system science
Bjarte Hannisdal is co-author of a new paper in Science that shows that long-term changes in marine animal diversity may have been linked to the Earth's geological evolution over the last 500 million years.
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Volcanism and Astrobiology: Life on Earth and Beyond
CGB researcher Nicola McLoughlin was a co-author of the introduction to the latest issue of Astrobiology.
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Research summary 2007-2010
Research in this area involves research on the oldest rock sequences on Earth and aims to: 1) understand crust-forming processes in the Archaean; 2) provide new knowledge about the first traces of life and the environment on early Earth; and 3) understand the changes taking place in the Earth system at the time of the Great Oxygenation Event.
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In 2009
In 2009 one of the key publications on this theme describes the twists and turns of microbial life in volcanic glass and the microscopic tunnels created by these “rock eating” microorganisms. Such microbial “footprints” were discovered by scientists in Bergen more than 15 years ago, yet the full diversity of shapes that these microbes can make is only now becoming apparent.