The Gunflint formation, north-western shores of Lake Superior.
The bad news for the failing Creationist cult just continues to pile up. Not only do scientists regularly find fossils of 'transitional organisms' coming partway between an earlier taxon and a later one, but now they have found evidence, in 1.9 billion-year-old micro-fossils, of transition between the earlier, prokaryote cells and the more complex eukaryote cells that multicellular organisms eventually evolved from.
To conform to Creationist superstitions, though, they should not be that old and they should not be transitional between major taxons. The yawning gap between what Creationists are obliged to believe and what science shows to be true just got a bit wider.
The discovery was made by a research team from Tohoku University, Japan, and the University of Tokyo, Japan, who analysed micro-fossils from the Gunflint Formation which traverses the northern part of Minnesota, USA into Ontario, Canada, along the north-western shores of Lake Superior.
The news release from Tohoku University explains the finding and its significance:
Scientists have long pondered how and when the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes occurred. A collaborative research team from Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo may have provided some answers after discovering new types of microfossils dating 1.9 billion years.The main body of the team's paper in Precambrian Research is behind a paywall, but the abstract is available here. In it, the scientists say:
Details of their findings were published in the journal Precambrian Research on August 19, 2022.
The Gunflint Formation traverses the northern part of Minnesota into Ontario, along the northwestern shores of Lake Superior. The first bacterial microfossils were discovered there in 1954, with Gunflint microfossils now recognized as a 'benchmark' in the field of life evolution.Common types of Gunflint microfossils, with white scale bars at a scale of 0.01mm.
©Sasaki et al.Yet, since the 1970s, little research on the diversity of Gunflint microfossils has been conducted, and no conclusive evidence of eukaryotic microfossils has been reported.The newly found ones are more functional. The ellipsoidal microfossils resemble modern cyanobacteria, which evolved to improve their tolerance to harsh environments; whereas chemical analysis showed that the ICI microfossils were packed with nutrients.
Although the size of cells is prokaryote by definition, they had already developed eukaryotic functions.
Under such conditions, microorganisms probably diversified their morphology as a survival strategy, paving the way for eukaryotes to evolve,
Kohei Sasaki, team leader Research fellow
Tohoku University, Japan.
Seeking to reassess the microfossils, the research team carried out a geological survey of the Gunflint Formation and collected microfossil-containing rocks. After investigating the microfossils' three-dimensional shape and size distribution, they unearthed five types of microfossils: colonial, ellipsoidal, intracellular inclusion-bearing (ICI), spinous and tail-bearing types.
This evidences that the microorganisms evolved to store nutrients that could weather environmental stress.
Meanwhile, the spinous and tail-bearing types demonstrated features advantageous for motility and nutrient transfer among cells, a typical morphological feature of eukaryotes.
"Although the size of cells is prokaryote by definition, they had already developed eukaryotic functions," added Sasaki. This indicates that prokaryotes may have begun diversifying their functions and preparing for evolution before the emergence of eukaryotes 1.8 - 1.6 billion years ago.
The team speculates that the unique environment at the time facilitated the divergent expansion of microbial forms. The collision of land masses accelerated oxidative weathering from the fresh continent to the ocean. This increased the nutrient supplies and raised seawater temperatures, making the marine environment unstable.I+mages of the newly discovered microfossils, with white scale bars at a scale of 0.01mm.
©Sasaki et al.
HighlightsThis of course is pretty much what we would expect from an understanding of the TOE. It's absolutely not what we would expect if creationism of any flavour were true. Appart from denying them, in the face of the evidence to the contrary, Creationism is completly unable to explain the existence of all the transitional fossils that are currently filling draws and display cabinets in natural history museums world wide.
- Five new microfossils were discovered in the 1.9 Ga Gunflint Formation, Canada.
- New morphological and geochemical data proved the biogenicity of microfossils.
- Some microfossils showed early acquisition of dormancy and nutrient storage function.
- Novel microfossils with cell projection show eukaryotic affinity morphologically.
- Early eukaryotic evolution coincidentally occurred with prokaryotic diversification.
Abstract
The evolutionary history of early prokaryotes is recorded in Paleoproterozoic sedimentary rocks. The ca. 1.88 Ga Gunflint Formation is considered key to constrain the course of Paleoproterozoic microbial evolution. However, whether the multicellularity of prokaryote and eukaryote was already present by the Gunflint age remains uncertain. Here, we report novel morphotypes of prokaryotes including colonial, ellipsoidal, spherical, with intracellular inclusions (ICIs), spinous-type, and tail-bearing type, in the Gunflint stromatolitic chert. Biogenicity of such morphotypes was indicated based on their unique microstructures with the parallel C, N, and S distributions and lack of evidence of their post-depositional artifact origin. The new finding of colonial-type microbes in the Gunflint Formation indicates global flourishment of the colonial-type in this age. Moreover, unknown spherical cell-like structures with ICIs were identified, along with microfossils bearing strong similarities to cyanobacterial akinetes. ICIs were more enriched in N-bearing organic compounds than cell wall organic matter. Those ICIs were interpreted as biological contracted protoplasts. These new findings suggest that Paleoproterozoic prokaryotes were more diverse and complex than previously considered and had already acquired adaptability to survive drastic environmental changes. Furthermore, the protruding appendages in the novel spine- and tail-bearing type microfossils likely provided them with advantages in nutrient access and motility respectively, resulting in the promotion of the intercellular interactions. This suggests that functional evolution toward eukaryotes had already started in the Gunflint age.
Sasaki, Kohei; Ishida, Akizumi; Takahata, Naoto; Sano, Yuji; Kakegawa, Takeshi
Evolutionary diversification of paleoproterozoic prokaryotes: New microfossil records in 1.88 Ga Gunflint Formation
Precambrian Research 2022 380; 106798. DOI: 10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106798
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
Reprinted under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s60.
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