How predatory plankton created modern ecosystems after ‘Snowball Earth’

Jan 29, 2019

Predatory plankton apparently contributed to the evolution of today's modern ecosystems after a global glaciation phase.

Christian Hallmann and Pierre Sansjofre collecting samples. Photo: Lennart van Maldegem

Around 635 to 720 million years ago, during Earth’s most severe glacial period, the Earth was twice almost completely covered by ice, according to current hypotheses. The question of how life on Earth survived these ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations, lasting up to about 50 million years, has occupied the most eminent scientists for many decades. An international team, led by Dutch and German researchers of the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmetal Sciences at the University of Bremen and the Max Planck Society, now found the first detailed glimpse of life after the ‘Snowball' in the form of newly discovered ancient molecules, buried in old rocks. Their results were now published in Nature Communications.

Original publication:
Lennart M. van Maldegem, Pierre Sansjofre, Johan W.H. Weijers, Klaus Wolkenstein, Paul K. Strother, Lars Wörmer, Jens Hefter, Benjamin J. Nettersheim, Yosuke Hoshino, Stefan Schouten, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté, Nilamoni Nath, Christian Griesinger, Nikolay B. Kuznetsov, Marcel Elie, Marcus Elvert, Erik Tegelaar, Gerd Gleixner & Christian Hallmann (2019): Bisnorgammacerane as a novel biological marker tracing ecosystem change after Snowball Earth. Nature Communications 10:476, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08306-x

Contact:
Dr. Christian Hallmann
Organic paleobiochemistry
Phone: 0049 421 218-65820
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Sample analysis in the laboratory. Photo: Tom Pingel (http://tompingel.de/)

Press release Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena