{"id":12914,"date":"2023-12-16T13:46:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T13:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/16\/land-of-the-lost-hidden-lagoon-network-found-with-living-fossils-similar-to-those-from-more-than-3-billion-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2023-12-16T13:46:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T13:46:59","slug":"land-of-the-lost-hidden-lagoon-network-found-with-living-fossils-similar-to-those-from-more-than-3-billion-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/16\/land-of-the-lost-hidden-lagoon-network-found-with-living-fossils-similar-to-those-from-more-than-3-billion-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Land of the lost: Hidden lagoon network found with\u00a0living fossils\u00a0similar to those from more than 3 billion years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered a previously hidden ecosystem with an expansive system of lagoons in the salt plains <\/strong>of Puna de Atacama, an arid plateau in Argentina \u2014 with giant stromatolites that could provide a glimpse into the earliest life on Earth and possibly even on Mars, according to new research. <\/p>\n

Stromatolites are\u00a0layered rocks\u00a0created by the growth of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, through photosynthesis. The structures are considered to be one of the oldest ecosystems on Earth,\u00a0according to NASA,\u00a0representing the earliest fossil evidence for life on our planet from at\u00a0least 3\u00bd billion years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are certainly akin to some of the earliest macrofossils on our planet, and in really a rare type of environment on modern Earth,\u201d said\u00a0Brian Hynek, a professor\u00a0<\/strong>in the department of geological sciences\u00a0at the University of Colorado Boulder, who helped document the ecosystem. \u201cThey are a window into the distant past as to what life might have looked like 3\u00bd billion years ago on our planet.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ancient giant stromatolites used to be widespread in Earth\u2019s Precambrian era, which encompasses the early time span of around\u00a04.6 billion to 541 million years ago, but now they are sparsely distributed around the world. The most well-developed areas are in the Bahamas and the Shark Bay area in Western Australia, according to the nonprofit conservation organization\u00a0Bush Heritage Australia. <\/p>\n

Modern stromatolites are relatively small, Hynek said, whereas ancient stromatolites used to grow to 20 feet (6 meters) tall and 16 to 22 feet (5 to 7 meters) wide, he said. Beneath the waters of Puna de Atacama\u2019s lagoons, the recently uncovered stromatolites are up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide and several feet high,\u00a0according to a news release\u00a0from the University of Colorado Boulder. <\/p>\n

Stromatolites also tend to grow in alkaline conditions, but the Puna de Atacama\u2019s system of lagoons are acidic. The stromatolites found today are almost all carbonate rocks (made of limestone), but these structures are mostly composed of the minerals\u00a0gypsum and halite\u00a0(rock salt), Hynek said. <\/p>\n

It is unclear why the stromatolites are so large, Hynek said, but he speculated that the inland ecosystem sat undisturbed for a long period of time, which allowed them to grow unimpeded. <\/p>\n

More on ancient stromatolites<\/h3>\n

Unlike modern stromatolites, ancient stromatolites grew in a period when the atmosphere lacked oxygen. In these conditions, the stromatolites\u2019 microbes used\u00a0anoxygenic photosynthesis,\u00a0which doesn\u2019t require oxygen, to convert light energy into compounds that support living cells. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is spectacular to find structures that could be biogenic (produced by living organisms) at this unusual altitude,\u201d said\u00a0Pieter Visscher, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Connecticut who has extensively studied stromatolites, in an email. \u201cA major issue with the discovery, whether biogenic or not, is that these are formed in the presence of oxygen (in the current atmosphere). Until 2.3 billion years ago, there was no oxygen.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the stromatolites are in an environment containing oxygen, Hynek said he\u00a0<\/strong>believes the layers farther down in the rock have little to no access to oxygen and are actively formed by microbes using\u00a0anoxygenic photosynthesis. This would make the structures similar to the ones found on ancient Earth. <\/p>\n

Hynek spotted the system of lagoons through satellite imagery in April 2022 when he was studying another lagoon in northwestern Argentina that had smaller stromatolites with microbes that use anoxygenic photosynthesis. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure if the microbes are actively participating in their growth (in the newly discovered stromatolites). We think they are. But we haven\u2019t done the experiments yet to try to figure that part out,\u201d said Hynek, who documented preliminary observations with microbiologist Maria Far\u00edas, cofounder of Punabio SA Environmental Consulting. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work to be done. We just discovered them and hardly scratched the surface.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hynek and Far\u00edas were slated to present their findings December 11 at the 2023 meeting of the Geophysical Union in San Francisco, according to a news release. <\/p>\n

Possible window into ancient Mars<\/h3>\n

If the stromatolites are produced by microbes using anoxygenic photosynthesis, the discovery could provide insight on the possibility of life on ancient Mars, Hynek said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve identified more than 600\u00a0ancient lakes on Mars; there may have even been an ocean. So, it was a lot more Earth-like early on,\u201d he said. Hynek also said the\u00a0minerals gypsum and halite, found in the stromatolites in Argentina, are also in salt deposits all over Mars. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Mars ever evolved life through photosynthesis, this is the type of thing we\u2019d be looking for (stromatolites) \u2014 and it is the\u00a0type of thing we\u2019re looking for,\u201d said Hynek, who is also a research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to find any sort of fossils on Mars, this is our best guess as to what they would be, because these are the oldest ones from the Earth rock record.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hynek said he hopes to return to the lagoon soon to conduct more research on the stromatolites. <\/p>\n

\u201cStromatolites on Mars? A long shot, but who knows. So far, no carbonates at the surface of Mars, but the search continues,\u201d Visscher said, for potential signs of life.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered a previously hidden ecosystem with an expansive system of lagoons in the salt plains of Puna de Atacama, an arid plateau in Argentina \u2014 with giant stromatolites that could provide a glimpse into the earliest life on Earth and possibly even on Mars, according to new research. Stromatolites are\u00a0layered rocks\u00a0created by the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}