Journal
NATURE
Volume 477, Issue 7365, Pages 448-U95Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nature10327
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Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Geological Society of America
- American Philosophical Society
- NSF Division of Earth Sciences
- NASA
- Astrobiology Institute
- UTAS Visiting Fellows programme
- Agouron Institute
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Australian Research Council
- Directorate For Geosciences [0951998] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Division Of Earth Sciences [0745605] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Earth Sciences [0951998] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The chemical composition of the ocean changed markedly with the oxidation of the Earth's surface(1), and this process has profoundly influenced the evolutionary and ecological history of life(2,3). The early Earth was characterized by a reducing ocean-atmosphere system, whereas the Phanerozoic eon (less than 542 million years ago) is known for a stable and oxygenated biosphere conducive to the radiation of animals. The redox characteristics of surface environments during Earth's middle age (1.8-1 billion years ago) are less well known, but it is generally assumed that the mid-Proterozoic was home to a globally sulphidic (euxinic) deep ocean(2,3). Here we present iron data from a suite of mid-Proterozoic marine mudstones. Contrary to the popular model, our results indicate that ferruginous (anoxic and Fe2+-rich) conditions were both spatially and temporally extensive across diverse palaeogeographic settings in the mid-Proterozoic ocean, inviting new models for the temporal distribution of iron formations and the availability of bioessential trace elements during a critical window for eukaryotic evolution.
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