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oa BIOMARKER DISTRIBUTION THROUGHOUT THE MESOPROTEROZOIC NONESUCH FORMATION, USA
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 30th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG 2021), Sep 2021, Volume 2021, p.1 - 3
Abstract
Summary
The oldest eukaryotic microfossils have been found in late Paleoproterozoic sediments (∼1.69 Ga), yet the oldest molecular fossils are detected in units younger than 0.8 Ga. Yet the majority of sedimentary deposits either preserves microfossils or lipids, making it challenging to identify the eukaryotic lipid signature in the mid-Proterozoic. Recently, a large variety of eukaryotic microfossils in specific palynomorph rich horizons of the 1.1 Ga Nonesuch Fm were identified. Here we investigated the indigenous lipid biomarkers of the Nonesuch Fm. We observed indigenous lipid signatures, which display a similar bacterial dominated biomarker distribution as seen in other Proterozoic sedimentary sequences.
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