Editor's Summary
23 March 2006
Methanogens arrive early
Methanogenic microbes are thought to be ancient organisms, but it is uncertain when they first appeared on Earth. New results suggest that fluid inclusions found in 3.5-billion-year-old rock samples from the Pilbara craton in Western Australia contain methane that was produced by microbes. This is the earliest evidence for the presence of methanogens, predating previous geochemical evidence by about 700 million years. It represents one of the earliest microbial processes identified in the geological record and suggests that methanogens may have played a role in regulating the climate on the Archaean Earth.
News and Views: Biochemistry: Gas with an ancient history
Researchers persist in tackling our ignorance of what life was like way back in Earth's history. Evidence of methane production in ancient microbial ecosystems now emerges from 3.5-billion-year-old rocks.
Don E. Canfield
doi:10.1038/440426a
Letter: Evidence from fluid inclusions for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era
Yuichiro Ueno, Keita Yamada, Naohiro Yoshida, Shigenori Maruyama and Yukio Isozaki
doi:10.1038/nature04584
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