2023年7月25日

我处理坎坷我们现代的理解地球了!乌尔里希格纳/ ZELMI柏林技术大学的研究人员,乌克兰国家科学院,柏林自然历史博物馆和国家自然历史博物馆的卢森堡发现了最古老的、三维的微化石保存地球上迄今为止从Volyn矿物石英矿附近的(乌克兰)。安东·简科夫最前的证据,这种古老的微生物通常来自间接和可疑的痕迹,像投在岩石、化学残留物中形成有机物的腐烂,或解释的结构太复杂地质过程。只有大约5亿年前,生活找到一种方法使用矿物质像碳酸钙或磷酸努力构建部分,显著改善保护生物的潜力。是由距今1.5年前的化石的发现机会当研究者研究了矿物中发现我的。“这很奇妙,第一次,我们能够研究原始微生物的化石在扫描电子显微镜下。我们公司实际上是在研究水苍玉和黄玉。我们发现现在远比任何宝石都更有价值,”解释了名誉教授应用地质研究所的格哈德•弗朗茨博士你柏林。“我们现在看到在我们的电子显微镜大多是纤维结构。薄丝,分支或厚的小突起或凹陷,”弗兰兹解释道。 The thickness of the objects varies between 10 and 200 micrometers and their length is up to several millimeters (making them visible with the naked eye), sometimes with a thin channel in the middle. Tube-like and filamentous microfossils from the Volyn biota. Ulrich Gernert/ZELMI/Biogeosciences "By analyzing the carbon isotopes, we have also been able to prove that our finds must once have been living creatures," Franz explains. The researchers also detected the substance chitosan in certain filamentous objects using infrared spectroscopy, as well as the elements bismuth and tellurium using an electron microscope. "This all points to a fungus-like organism," Franz says. However, that would only apply to some of the finds, he adds. "From the other fossilized microorganisms, we can at least assume that they must have been single or multicellular organisms with distinct cell structures." These probably lived with the fungi in a common ecosystem What is particularly exciting is that the researchers also found a few previously unknown forms of microorganisms. These had spherical-shaped structures or tentacle-like branches. Previously unknown form of spherical-shaped organism. Ulrich Gernert/ZELMI The location of the fossilized primordial microorganisms on granite rock in a quartz mine suggests both their way of life and the reasons for their exceptionally good state of preservation. "Even today, microorganisms live up to three kilometers deep in the Earth's crust ," Franz explains. They live there—without sunlight—on substances such as phosphorus, nitrogen or carbon dioxide, some of which are dissolved in water and migrate downward from above through fissures and crevices or are already present there. The microorganisms obtain the energy they need for their metabolism from chemical processes on minerals. In the granite caverns of the Volyn quartz mine, such colonies of microorganisms were apparently already present near the Earth's surface 1.5 billion years ago. And because granite contains a lot of fluorine, strongly corrosive hydrofluoric acid was formed underground in interaction with water and heat, which dissolved a lot of aluminum and silicon. Like a geyser , this solution shot into the caverns from time to time, covering the microorganisms with a micrometer-thin layer of aluminum-silicate (or beryl). "Of course, the microorganisms died as a result—but they were also perfectly preserved," explains Franz. "We are only at the beginning. Further investigations and possibly new finds will be able to tell us even more about the primordial microorganisms, especially about previously unknown forms on the continents, and not just in the sea," concludes Franz. This could provide new insights into the early development of life on Earth, but perhaps also into the development of life under extreme conditions on other planets.