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Nature 416, 73-76 (7 March 2002) | doi:10.1038/416073a; Received 3 July 2001; Accepted 30 November 2001

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Laser–Raman imagery of Earth's earliest fossils

J. William Schopf1, Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev2, David G. Agresti2, Thomas J. Wdowiak2 & Andrew D. Czaja1

  1. Department of Earth & Space Sciences, and Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life), University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567, USA
  2. Astro and Solar System Physics Program, Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170, USA

Correspondence to: J. William Schopf1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.W.S. (e-mail: Email: schopf@ess.ucla.edu).

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Unlike the familiar Phanerozoic history of life, evolution during the earlier and much longer Precambrian segment of geological time centred on prokaryotic microbes1. Because such microorganisms are minute, are preserved incompletely in geological materials, and have simple morphologies that can be mimicked by nonbiological mineral microstructures, discriminating between true microbial fossils and microscopic pseudofossil 'lookalikes' can be difficult2, 3. Thus, valid identification of fossil microbes, which is essential to understanding the prokaryote-dominated, Precambrian 85% of life's history, can require more than traditional palaeontology that is focused on morphology. By combining optically discernible morphology with analyses of chemical composition, laser–Raman spectroscopic imagery of individual microscopic fossils provides a means by which to address this need. Here we apply this technique to exceptionally ancient fossil microbe-like objects, including the oldest such specimens reported from the geological record, and show that the results obtained substantiate the biological origin of the earliest cellular fossils known.

  1. Department of Earth & Space Sciences, and Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life), University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567, USA
  2. Astro and Solar System Physics Program, Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170, USA

Correspondence to: J. William Schopf1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.W.S. (e-mail: Email: schopf@ess.ucla.edu).