Gunflint chert
Gunflint chert | |
---|---|
Ga[1] | |
Type | Geological formation |
Lithology | |
Primary | Banded iron formation |
Location | |
Region | Minnesota Ontario |
Type section | |
Named for | Gunflint Range |
The Gunflint , along with some minor silicate minerals.
The Gunflint Iron Formation (exposed as the Gunflint Range) spans northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota along the shores of Lake Superior. The type locality of the Gunflint Iron Formation is at Schreiber, ON near Lake Superior’s Thunder Bay.[5]
Geologist
Stratigraphy
The Gunflint Iron Formation is a banded iron formation, composed predominantly of dense chert and slate layers interbedded with ankerite carbonate layers. The chert layers can be subdivided into black layers (containing organic material and pyrite), red layers (containing hematite), and green layers (containing siderite).[5] The Gunflint Iron Formation belongs to the Animike Group and can be broken up into four stratigraphic sections, the Lower Cherty, Lower Slaty, Upper Cherty, and Upper Slaty sections.[7] Microfossils can be found in the stromatolitic chert layers, consisting of cyanobacteria, algal filaments, spore-like spheroids, and organic-rich ooids.
History
Geologist Stanley A. Tyler first examined the
Age
The Gunflint chert microfauna is mid- to late-
Microfaunal diversity
The most abundant organisms in Gunflint are
Filamentous microorganisms
Filamentous microorganisms within the Gunflint Chert represent a mixed population of photosynthetic cyanobacteria and iron oxidizing bacteria. On the outcrop scale, the filamentous Gunflint cyanobacteria form meter-scale stromatolitic domes, which are discernible along the Gunflint Iron Formation stratigraphic section. Examples of newly identified filamentous genera and species within the Gunflint Chert include the genus Gunflintia and the species Animikiea septate, Entosphaeroides amplus, and Archaeorestis schreiberensis.[2]
Spheroidal microorganisms
Spheroidal spore-like bodies within the Gunflint Chert are found irregularly distributed throughout the Gunflint Iron Formation, and range from 1 to 16 μm in diameter. The spheroidal bodies range from spherical to ellipsoidal in morphology. They are typically encased in a membrane which can vary in wall thickness and morphology. The spheroidal bodies have been hypothesized to be various things, such as unicellular cyanobacteria, endogenously produced endospores of bacterial origin, free-swimming dinoflagellates, and fungus spores.[2] Examples of newly identified spheroidal genera and species within the Gunflint Chert include the genera Huroniospora and Eoasatrion, as well as the species Eosphaera tyleri.[3][17]
Preservation of microfauna
Various predominant
Significance and paleoenvironmental implications
In the 1950s and 1960s, the state of the Precambrian atmosphere was not well characterized. The discovery of the Gunflint microbiota revealed that photosynthesis (or an ancient autotrophic precursor modality) was occurring 1.8 billion years ago, and that the atmosphere was oxygenated enough to sustain microbial life.[4] The mineralogy of the Gunflint banded iron formation reveals a complex relationship between these redox conditions throughout the Gunflint Formation.[4] Multiple iron species in the Gunflint formation provides evidence for a highly oxidative atmosphere, with some localized reducing conditions which allowed for the transport of large quantities of iron in a soluble ferrous state.[4]
While the Gunflint microfauna no longer represents the oldest life discovered on Earth, at the time of discovery it pushed back the presumptive age of photosynthesis and the origin of life boundary by over one billion years. This discovery spurred generations of paleontologists and geomicrobiologists to contemplate ancient atmospheric oxygen conditions and redox states, and to continue searching for older microbial life.
See also
- Oxygen catastrophe
- Animikie Group
References
- ^ doi:10.1139/E02-028.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b c d e f g Barghoorn, E. S. and Tyler, S. A., 1965: Microorganisms from the Gunflint Chert. Science, vol. 147, p. 563–577.
- ^ ISSN 0301-9268.
- ^ S2CID 37713079.
- ^ ISSN 1554-0774.
- ^ Past lives: Chronicles of Canadian Paleontology "GSC :: Past lives: Chronicles of Canadian Paleontology - 5. Gunflint Chert". Archived from the original on 2005-06-12. Retrieved 2005-06-12.
- ^ ISSN 0012-821X.
- S2CID 140697996.
- ISSN 0016-7606.
- ISSN 0016-7606.
- )
- ISSN 0016-7037.
- ISSN 0096-3941.
- S2CID 129538570.
- ISSN 0016-7606.
- ^ S2CID 205140142.
- ^ ISSN 0301-9268.
- ^ PMID 23630257.
- ISSN 0016-7568.
- Schopf, J.W., 1999: Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils. Princeton University Press, 336 p. ISBN 0-691-00230-4
- Superior type Banded Iron Formation