Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here...
1: Nature. 2007 Jan 11;445(7124):198-201. Epub 2006 Dec 20.
Related Articles, Links
Click here to read Click here to read
Comment in:
Evidence of giant sulphur bacteria in Neoproterozoic phosphorites.

Bailey JV, Joye SB, Kalanetra KM, Flood BE, Corsetti FA.

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA. jvbailey@usc.edu

In situ phosphatization and reductive cell division have recently been discovered within the vacuolate sulphur-oxidizing bacteria. Here we show that certain Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation (about 600 million years bp) microfossils, including structures previously interpreted as the oldest known metazoan eggs and embryos, can be interpreted as giant vacuolate sulphur bacteria. Sulphur bacteria of the genus Thiomargarita have sizes and morphologies similar to those of many Doushantuo microfossils, including symmetrical cell clusters that result from multiple stages of reductive division in three planes. We also propose that Doushantuo phosphorite precipitation was mediated by these bacteria, as shown in modern Thiomargarita-associated phosphogenic sites, thus providing the taphonomic conditions that preserved other fossils known from the Doushantuo Formation.

Publication Types:
PMID: 17183268 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]