Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.

8-Ga Duck
Creek Formation provide promising evidence of
evolution’s null hypothesis
J. William Schopfa,b,c,d,e,1, Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsevb,d,e, Malcolm R. Walterf,g, Martin J. Van Kranendonkf,h,i,
Kenneth H. Williforde,j,k, Reinhard Kozdone,j, John W. Valleye,j, Victor A. Gallardol, Carola Espinozal,
and David T. Flanneryf,g,k
a
Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, bCenter for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, and cMolecular Biology Institute,
University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095; dPenn State Astrobiology Research Center, University Park, PA 16802; eAstrobiology Research Consortium
and jDepartment of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin−Madison, Madison, WI 53706; fAustralian Centre for Astrobiology, gSchool of Biotechnology and
Biomolecular Sciences, hSchool of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and iAustralian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid
Systems, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia; kJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109;
and lDepartamento de Oceanografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

Edited by Thomas N. Taylor, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, and approved January 5, 2015 (received for review October 6, 2014)

The recent discovery of a deep-water sulfur-cycling microbial biota from the ∼2.4- to ∼2.2-Ga Great Oxidation Event, the “GOE”
in the ∼2.3-Ga Western Australian Turee Creek Group opened a (5). Further, the Duck Creek fossils evidence the “hypo-
new window to life’s early history. We now report a second such bradytely” of early-evolved microbes, an exceptionally low rate of
subseafloor-inhabiting community from the Western Australian discernable evolutionary change and a term coined (6) to parallel
∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation. Permineralized in cherts formed the three other distinct rate distributions in evolution proposed

EVOLUTION
during and soon after the 2.4- to 2.2-Ga “Great Oxidation Event,” in 1944 by G. G. Simpson (7) on the basis of morphological
these two biotas may evidence an opportunistic response to the comparisons of fossil and living taxa. This striking degree of
mid-Precambrian increase of environmental oxygen that resulted conservatism, documented initially for Proterozoic cyanobacteria
in increased production of metabolically useable sulfate and ni- (6, 8), is shown here for colorless sulfur bacteria by the marked
trate. The marked similarity of microbial morphology, habitat, similarities in habitat, web-like fabric, and organismal morphol-
and organization of these fossil communities to their modern ogy and composition of the Duck Creek biota to the ∼2.3-Ga

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counterparts documents exceptionally slow (hypobradytelic) Turee Creek biocoenose and modern anaerobic sulfur-cycling

EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC,
change that, if paralleled by their molecular biology, would evi- biotas known from subseafloor sediments off the west coast of
dence extreme evolutionary stasis. South America (9, 10).
The two mid-Precambrian communities, closely similar in all
| |
Great Oxidation Event microbial evolution null hypothesis | salient characteristics, differ markedly from fossil and modern
|
Precambrian microorganisms sulfur bacteria photoautotroph-dominated stromatolitic/microbial mat-forming
microbiotas (refs. 11 and 12, Fig. 1). The fossil filaments are also
unlike modern iron-metabolizing microbes, whether Fe+2 oxi-
W e here describe a Paleoproterozoic marine deep-water
sediment-inhabiting sulfur-cycling microbial community
permineralized in cherts of the ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation
dizing or Fe+3 reducing. That they are neither aerobic iron oxi-
dizers nor anaerobic photosynthetic iron oxidizers is evidenced
of Western Australia, the second such subseafloor biocoenose by their anoxic subseafloor habitat, discussed in Geological
reported from the geological record. Comparable modern com-
munities, well studied in marine mud, are characterized by the Significance
presence of large populations of bacteria that metabolically cycle
sulfur and by a low content of dissolved oxygen that, in the An ancient deep-sea mud-inhabiting 1,800-million-year-old
subsurface parts of the community, is essentially zero. Physically, sulfur-cycling microbial community from Western Australia is
they typically are composed of two regions: a quiescent sub- essentially identical both to a fossil community 500 million
surface anoxic zone consisting of an interlaced web-like fabric of years older and to modern microbial biotas discovered off the
randomly oriented and commonly exceedingly long filamentous coast of South America in 2007. The fossils are interpreted to
anaerobic microbes ≤10 μm in diameter and an overlying, sur- document the impact of the mid-Precambrian increase of at-
face-to-subsurface zone characterized by the presence of such mospheric oxygen, a world-changing event that altered the
large-diameter microaerophilic taxa as Thioploca and Beggiatoa. history of life. Although the apparent 2-billion-year-long stasis
Metabolically, sulfur-cycling in such ecosystems is fueled by of such sulfur-cycling ecosystems is consistent with the null
seawater sulfate that, in the anoxic zone, is bacterially reduced to hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution—if there is no change
hydrogen sulfide; such sulfide can then be oxidized to elemental in the physical-biological environment of a well-adapted ecosys-
sulfur, either by nitrate-using anaerobes or by microaerophiles, tem, its biotic components should similarly remain unchanged—
using dissolved oxygen derived from overlying waters, and the additional evidence will be needed to establish this aspect of
sulfur, in turn, can be microbially oxidized to sulfate. evolutionary theory.
The Duck Creek biota is ∼500 Ma younger than the first such
Author contributions: J.W.S., K.H.W., and J.W.V. designed research; J.W.S., A.B.K., M.R.W.,
fossil community discovered, a sulfur-cycling microbial bio- M.J.V.K., K.H.W., R.K., V.A.G., C.E., and D.T.F. performed research; J.W.S., A.B.K., M.R.W.,
coenose recently described from the Turee Creek Group Kazput M.J.V.K., K.H.W., R.K., J.W.V., V.A.G., C.E., and D.T.F. analyzed data; and J.W.S., M.R.W., K.H.W.,
Formation, also of northwestern Australia (1). Previously con- J.W.V., and V.A.G. wrote the paper.
sidered to be a cyanobacterium-dominated photic-zone assem- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
blage (2, 3) or a deeper water community using iron-based This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
metabolism (4), our reinterpretation of the Duck Creek biota is 1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: schopf@ess.ucla.edu.
consistent with a proliferation of sulfur-cycling biocoenoses fol- This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.
lowing the upsurge of biologically available sulfate and nitrate 1073/pnas.1419241112/-/DCSupplemental.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1419241112 PNAS Early Edition | 1 of 6

 fossils were first reported in 1983 (19), Precambrian Paleobiol-
ogy Research Group (PPRG) samples 049−053, collected at
Wyloo 1:250,000 map sheet area grid reference 436195 (latitude
22.29.208°S, longitude 116.18.886°E) and 059−062, at grid ref-
erence 459195 (lat. 22.29.213°S, long. 116.18.986°E) (20). These
fossil-bearing cherts, recollected in 2012 (Fig. S1), are thin (5- to
15-cm-thick) discontinuous lenses enclosed in flat-bedded buff to
light brown weathered fine-grained ferruginous dolostone (20).
Although peritidal stromatolites occur in this stratigraphically
upward-deepening sedimentary succession (4, 20), the cherts
and their encompassing carbonates do not contain such shallow-
water indicators as stromatolites, interclasts, cross-lamination,
ripple marks, mud cracks, or other desiccation features. The po-
sition of the fossiliferous strata in the well-documented sequence
stratigraphy of the Duck Creek strata (4) substantiates their de-
position in a relatively deep-water facies of the marine basin.
Like the fossil-containing cherts of the ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek
Group (1), we interpret those of the ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek For-
mation to have formed beneath storm wave base and likely
subphotic zone. The fossil-bearing chert lenses of the two units
are similar: In both, they occur in deeper water regions off dis-
tally steepened carbonate ramps (1, 4); are dominantly sub-
parallel to the bedding of encompassing carbonates but locally
pinch, swell, and transgress bedding planes, attributes supporting
their subseafloor formation; and contain carbonate rhombs
Fig. 1. Fabrics of the Precambrian fossil sulfur-cycling biotas and a micro- “floating” in microcrystalline quartz and microbes preserved
fossiliferous stromatolite. (A−C) Wispy irregular cobweb-like fabric of the before cellular disintegration that indicate the lenses to be early
∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek fossiliferous chert (PPRG sample 062) and (D−F) the diagenetic replacements of carbonate marls.
closely similar ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek (Kazput Formation) chert, compared
with (G−I) the regularly laminated fabric of a cyanobacterium- (photo- Microbial Composition and Physiology. The distinctive, irregular
totroph-) dominated biota permineralized in stromatolitic cherts of the web-like fabric of the Duck Creek biota differs markedly from
∼725-Ma South Australian Skillogalee Dolomite. Arrows point to fossil mi- the layered structure of Precambrian phototroph- (cyanobacte-
crobial filaments. rium-) dominated stromatolitic communities (8, 21) but is in-
distinguishable from that of the ∼500-Ma-older Turee Creek
Group sulfur-cycling biota (Fig. 1). In both units, random
Setting and Microbial Composition and Physiology. Their meshworks of microbial filaments enclose ellipsoidal domains of
possible affinity to nitrate-dependent and typically rod-shaped clear quartz interpreted to represent replaced anhydrite (1).
anaerobic iron oxidizers (13) is ruled out by their differing Similarly, the dominant microbial components of the two
morphology and community composition and fabric, as well as by assemblages are essentially identical: relatively large diameter
the absence of iron oxide minerals from the fossiliferous cherts. (∼7- to 9-μm-broad) elongate-celled filaments (Fig. 2 B−D and
In addition, their lack of similarity to modern anaerobic iron- F−H), smaller diameter (∼1- to 4-μm-wide) filaments composed
reducing bacilliform bacteria such as Geobacter and Shewanella, of bead-shaped cells (Fig. 2 L−U), and very narrow (≤1-μm-
particularly well-studied members of this group (14–16), is shown diameter) thread-like cellular filaments (Fig. 3 D−I)—morpho-
not only by their filamentous morphology but also by the absence types that differ from phototrophic cyanobacteria (6, 10, 11) but
of magnetite and siderite from the fossil-bearing units, principal closely resemble principal components of the anoxic subseafloor
products of anaerobic iron reduction (17). parts of modern sulfur-cycling communities (9, 10) off the
On these bases and supporting lines of evidence, we interpret western coast of South America (Figs. 2 and 3), modern com-
the striking similarities in organismal morphology, community munities that exhibit an irregular web-like fabric similar to that
structure, habitat, and evident physiology between the ancient of the fossil assemblages (compare Fig. 1 A−F with figure 10 in
and modern sulfur-cycling biotas as evidencing stasis resulting ref. 10) in which many of the “bead-celled” filaments contain
from adaptation to a physically quiescent subseafloor environment sulfur granules (ref. 10, figures 6 and 7), products of anaerobic
that has remained essentially unchanged over billions of years. sulfide oxidation. Moreover, in all three communities—the Duck
Creek, Turee Creek, and modern sulfur-cycling biotas—the
Results randomly interlaced microbial filaments that comprise their web-
Geological Setting. The Paleoproterozoic mid-Wyloo Group Duck like fabric (refs. 1, 10, and 15, Fig. 1) can be exceedingly long
Creek Formation, overlain conformably in its northern reaches (Figs. 2 A−D and N−R and 3 D−F), more than a thousand
by the June Hill Volcanics and capped to the southwest by microns in length, lengths not recorded in wave-agitated photic-
strata of the Ashburton Formation, is a 1,000-m-thick sedi- zone stromatolitic assemblages that further evidence a physically
mentary carbonate platform succession overlying siltstones quiescent subseafloor environment.
of the McGrath Formation that disconformably overlie the Morphometric comparison of the principal components of the
Neoarchean−Paleoproterozoic Mount Bruce Supergroup (18). fossil and modern sulfur-cycling communities with oscillator-
The age of the Duck Creek Formation is bracketed by a 2,209 ± iacean cyanobacteria, the dominant microorganisms of photic-
15 Ma U-Pb date on underlying volcanics of the Cheela Springs zone stromatolitic/mat-forming assemblages, documents their
Basalt and a 1,795 ± 7 Ma U-Pb date on the overlying June Hill dissimilarity (11, 12). The broadest of the fossil sulfur bacteria
Volcanics (4). are ∼8 μm in diameter, composed of 12- to 15-μm-long cells.
The microbial biota reported here, in rocks from Duck Creek Such dimensions are highly unusual for cyanobacteria. Of 436
Gorge (Fig. S1), occurs in fine-grained black or mottled gray- taxa of modern oscillatoriaceans analyzed, only two (<1%) have
and-black carbonaceous cherts at two localities from which similar dimensions (11), and of 94 taxa of septate unbranched

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 For extant prokaryotes, phylogenetic relations and physiolog-
ical characteristics can be determined by molecular biology
backed by growth experiments. For fossil communities, however,
the biomolecules required (DNA, rRNA, enzymes, etc.) have
been lost during preservation. Thus, analyses of fossil commu-
nities such as those described here must rely on evidence pro-
vided by proxies—the morphometrics of the preserved fossils
backed by studies of their regional and local geological setting
and their paleoecology and community fabric.
On the basis of such proxies and the notable similarities in
habitat, fabric, and microbial composition of the fossilized bio-
coenoses of the ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek and ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek
to the anoxic zone of modern sulfur-cycling communities, we
interpret the Duck Creek fossils to represent an anoxic sediment-
inhabiting sulfur bacterial biocoenose like that of their modern
counterparts in which marine sulfate is microbially reduced to
H2S that, by use of nitrate, is then anaerobically oxidized to el-
emental sulfur and subsequently to sulfate (9, 10, 22).
This interpretation is supported by δ34S(Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite, VCDT)
values determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS)
analyses of Duck Creek pyritized filaments and associated py-
rite, 66 measurements that span a range of >50‰, from −9.4
to +43.4‰ (Fig. S2 and Dataset S1). Of these, values mea-
sured on individual Duck Creek pyritized fossils are typically

EVOLUTION
∼40‰ (Fig. 4). The most plausible explanation for the broad
range and virtually uniformly positive δ34S values of the Duck
Creek pyrite (Dataset S1) is the precipitation of pyrite by sul-
fate-reducing bacteria in an environment exhibiting very low
seawater sulfate concentrations, like that indicated for other
Proterozoic units of comparable age (23), in a relatively closed

AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC,
subseafloor system where microbial sulfur cycling would have
been prevalent and/or at a rate similar to that of the diffusion of
marine sulfate into the zone of its reduction. Under such con-
ditions, the microbially precipitated pyrite would have the same
or similar δ34S as the metabolized seawater sulfate, indicating that
the maximum value measured (43.4‰; Fig. 4 and Dataset S1)

Fig. 2. Modern and Precambrian filamentous sulfur-cycling microorganisms.

(A−E) Broad, ∼7- to 9-μm-diameter modern microbes (9, 10) compared with
similar fossils of the ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek (B and F) and ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek
cherts (C, D, G, and H: PPRG sample 062). (I−K) More narrow, ∼1- to 4-μm-
diameter bead-celled (I−K) modern microbes (9, 10) compared with similar
fossils of the ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek (L−N) and ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek cherts (O−Q,
PPRG sample 062; and R−U, PPRG sample 049). (S−U) Raman images of the
filament in R, acquired at the ∼1,605 cm−1 band of kerogen (Fig. S5) that es-
tablish its carbonaceous (kerogenous) composition (shown in blue).

filaments reported from 69 Proterozoic geological units, only one

(Partitiofilum tungusum), preserved in a photic-zone intertidal
setting unlike that of the fossil sulfur bacteria, is morphometri-
cally comparable (11, 12). Similarly, the ∼1- to 4-μm-wide bead-
celled fossil filaments are of appreciably smaller diameter than
Nostoc or other morphologically comparable cyanobacteria and, Fig. 3. Modern and Precambrian filamentous sulfur-cycling micro-
unlike many such taxa, are enclosed by a prominent cylindrical organisms. Very narrow, ≤1-μm-diameter modern microbes (A−C) (9, 10)
sheath and lack heterocysts and akinetes (Fig. 2 L−U); and the compared with similar fossils of the ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek (D) and ∼1.8-Ga
Duck Creek cherts (E−I; PPRG sample 062). (G) Higher-magnification image
≤1-μm-diameter and commonly exceedingly long thread-like of a part of the filament in F, parts of which are shown in Raman images
fossil bacteria are morphometrically decidedly unlike cyanobac- (H and I) acquired at the ∼1,605 cm−1 band of kerogen (Fig. S5) that document
teria, both fossil and modern (11, 12). its carbonaceous composition (shown in blue) and cellularity (white arrows).

Schopf et al. PNAS Early Edition | 3 of 6

 precipitates MnO2, Fe2O3, and TiO2 in a dysoxic environment
(30), encrustations like those of Duck Creek specimens (Fig.
S4). (iv) Present also in the Duck Creek (Fig. S4) and other
Paleoproterozoic biotas (1, 26–29, 31, 32) are Huroniospora-like
unicells morphologically comparable (33) to the free-swimming
(34) modern microaerophilic sulfur bacterium Thiovulum that,
like Metallogenium, the modern counterpart of Eoastrion,
inhabits the oxic−anoxic interface and, as previously interpreted
(26), a planktonic microbe evidently deposited from overlying
waters. (v) The Duck Creek assemblage, like that of the older
Turee Creek biocoenose (1), lacks large-diameter filamentous
microbes morphologically comparable to microaerophilic
“megabacteria” such as Beggiatoa, present in modern sulfur-
cycling biotas at the sediment−water interface, and Thioploca, an
extant sulfur cycler that commonly penetrates into underlying
anoxic mud (22, 35, 36). The single large-celled partial filament
reported from the Duck Creek chert is regarded as possibly cya-
nobacterial and allochthonous (3), an interpretation suggesting
that sulfur-cycling megabacteria may have been of later origin.

Fig. 4. Sulfur isotopic SIMS δ34S(VCDT) analyses of Duck Creek pyrite. Back- Discussion
scattered electron images of pyritic filaments (A−C) and framboidal pyrite In the aftermath of the ∼2.4- to ∼2.2-Ga GOE, it is likely that
(D) (M.R.W. collection 12.06.18.2, compare PPRG samples 049–053). The surface waters of the Duck Creek basin were at least weakly oxic
Insets in A−C, acquired by combined transmitted and reflected light, show (37–40). The increase of atmospheric oxygen at the GOE would
filaments plunging beneath the thin section surface; arrows point to SIMS have increased the abundance not only of seawater sulfate (5, 25)—
analytical pits.
precursor of the bacterially generated H2S that, despite competition
for reaction with dissolved ferrous iron, would have produced local
approximates the δ34S of mid-Precambrian oceanic sulfate (see sulfidic regions (38, 39) that may have promoted the spread of
SI Text, Fig. S2, and Dataset S1). sulfur-cycling communities—but also of nitrate, “oxygenation of the
upper parts of the oceans almost certainly [being] accompanied by
Paleoecology. Although data summarized above indicate that a shift in the marine chemistry of nitrogen from NH4+-dominated to
both the ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek and ∼2.3-Ga Turee Creek fos- NO3−-dominated” (ref. 5, pages 3820–3821) with “a complete ni-
siliferous cherts are benthic and subseafloor, evidently formed trogen biogeochemical cycle [being] established by about 2.0 Ga”
beneath storm wave base and likely subphotic zone, there is no (41, page 349). Such nitrate, diffusing from overlying waters into
reliable geologic index to establish quantitatively their bathy- subseafloor sediments, would have served to fuel anaerobic oxida-
metric setting. Nevertheless, their formation in such an envi- tive phosphorylation in the anoxic zone of sulfur-cycling commu-
ronment is consistent with and supported by both positive and nities. The GOE-spurred increase of H2S may also have affected
negative evidence. photic-zone communities where it would have been consumed by
Positive evidence indicating the fossil assemblages to be sub- associated sulfur cyclers, by anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, and
seafloor include the following: Regional geology, sequence by cyanobacteria capable of facultative (anoxygenic or oxygenic)
stratigraphy, local geology, disposition of the fossil-bearing beds, photosynthesis (42).
paleoecologic setting, fabric of the fossiliferous cherts, mor- Thus, we interpret the microbial biotas of the Turee Creek and
phology of the fossils, sulfur isotope data showing the prevalence Duck Creek cherts to reflect an opportunistic response to the
of strictly anaerobic sulfate reducers in a restricted environment, GOE, an interpretation consistent with the metabolic and bio-
and the community composition and one-to-one comparison of synthetic pathways of modern microbes as well as fossil evidence
the morphology of the fossil microbes to principal components of suggesting the immediately post-GOE appearance of oxygen-
extant anaerobic subseafloor sulfur-cycling communities. protective mechanisms in nostocalean cyanobacteria and the
Negative evidence indicating the fossil assemblages not to be advent of obligately aerobic eukaryotes (43).
shallow-water phototrophic include the following: Regional and How could the seemingly identical sulfur-cycling anoxic sedi-
local geology (namely, sequence stratigraphy, lack of shallow- ment-inhabiting biotas of the ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek and ∼2.3-Ga
water indicators, and the fine-grained petrology of associated Turee Creek cherts, like those of Proterozoic stromatolitic cya-
carbonates and their lack of clastics), morphometrics of the nobacteria (6, 8), have evidently remained fundamentally un-
fossils documenting their dissimilarity from coeval shallow-water changed over billions of years?
photic-zone phototrophs, and sulfur isotope data establishing the We suggest differing answers for these two early-evolved
prevalence of anaerobic sulfate reducers. hypobradytelic lifestyles:
Other lines of evidence further support interpretation of the i) For cyanobacteria, the answer evidently lies in a genetically
Duck Creek biota as a sulfur-cycling mud-inhabiting community encoded ecological flexibility derived from their early adap-
of anaerobic microbes: (i) Global models suggest that subsurface tation to geologically exceedingly slow changes of the photic-
water masses of the latest Paleoproterozoic were essentially zone environment (e.g., of solar luminosity, UV flux, day
anoxic and in some regions sulfidic, evidenced in the rock record length, and CO2, O2, and usable sulfur and nitrogen). Be-
by pyritic shales (23–25). (ii) The fossiliferous Duck Creek chert cause of their large population sizes, global dispersal by
locally contains copious authigenic pyrite, some encrusting mi- ocean currents and hurricanes, and capability to generate
crobial filaments, and a firm indicator of local anoxic conditions oxygen toxic to anaerobic competitors for photosynthetic
(Fig. S3). (iii) The Duck Creek biota, like others of similar age space, these ecologic generalists adapted to and survived in
(1, 26–29), contains the asteriform microbe Eoastrion (Figs. S4 a wide range of habitats (6).
and S5) that closely resembles modern Metallogenium, a plank- ii) Once subseafloor sulfur-cycling microbial communities had
tonic microaerophile that inhabits the hypolimnion, where it become established, however, there appears to have been little

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 or no stimulus for them to adapt to changing conditions. In of living cyanobacteria can be observed in well-preserved fossils”
their morphology and community structure, such colorless sul- (45, page 453), sulfur-cycling bacteria are classified primarily on
fur bacteria—inhabitants of relatively cold physically quiescent the basis of their (geologically unpreservable) genomic composi-
anoxic sediments devoid of light-derived diel signals and a set- tion. Moreover, large-diameter (“giant”) sulfur bacteria of dif-
ting that has persisted since early in Earth history—have fering phylogenetic lineages can exhibit similar morphologies and
exhibited an exceedingly long-term lack of discernable change patterns of behavior suggesting convergent evolution of morpho-
consistent with their asexual reproduction (6).
logic “look-alikes” adapted to a same or similar function (46, 47).
Given these observations, it might be tempting to interpret Although it remains to be established whether such morphological
such sulfur-cycling communities as evidencing the “negative” “mimicry” is exhibited also by the more narrow ≤10-μm-diameter
null hypothesis of Darwinian evolution—if there is no change in sulfur bacteria described here—the two modern sulfur bacterial
the physical-biological environment of a well-adapted ecosystem, taxa of similar dimensions being aerobes (ref. 46, table 2) rather
there should be no speciation, no evolution of the form, function, than anaerobes like the Duck Creek and Turee Creek fossils—it
or metabolic requirements of its biotic components—a confir- remains conceivable that the marked similarities between the two
mation of Darwin’s theory that seems likely to be provided only mid-Precambrian communities and their modern counterparts
by ecosystems fossilized in an environment that has remained could be an example of the so-called Volkswagen Syndrome,
essentially unaltered over many hundreds of millions of years.
a lack of change in organismal form that masks the evolution of
Although logically required, this aspect of evolutionary theory
internal biochemical machinery (6).
has yet to be established. Unlike stromatolitic cyanobacteria-
We regard it likely that ancient subseafloor microbial bio-
dominated biocoenoses, for which evolutionary conservatism has
been documented by comparison of more than 120 fossil species coenoses will be discovered to fill the gap between the mid-
and some 24 modern genera in scores of deposits investigated by Precambrian and the present and that these communities will be
many workers (6), comparison of fossil sulfur-cycling communi- fundamentally similar in their form, function, and metabolic
ties with the anaerobic components of their modern analogs is requirements to those of the Duck Creek and Turee Creek
based only on the two fossil assemblages described here and the cherts. Such findings may eventually be regarded as having

EVOLUTION
subseafloor microbes of modern communities off the west coast confirmed the null hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution,
of South America (9, 10), none of which has received detailed but such an assessment would be, at present, premature.
morphometric, taxonomic, and systemic evaluation.
Moreover, and although, like Simpson’s classic rate dis- Methods
tributions of evolution (7), the morphology-based “concept of Optical Microscopy and Raman Spectroscopy. Optical studies of all specimens,
hypobradytely does not necessarily imply genomic, biochemical, embedded in petrographic thin sections, were performed using standard

AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC,
or physiological identity between modern and fossil taxa” (6, techniques. Raman analyses of these specimens were acquired by use of a
page 6736), a claim of extreme evolutionary stasis—a lack of triple-stage laser-Raman system that has macro-Raman and confocal micro-
speciation over billions of years—would be strengthened not Raman capabilities (for details, see SI Methods and ref. 48).
only by discovery of additional fossil communities but by firm
evidence of their molecular biology. Although speciation-based Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy. Pyritic specimens were analyzed in petro-
evolution occurs at the phenotypic rather than genotypic level of graphic thin sections using newly developed sample holders that provide
biologic−environmental interaction, the biomolecules underlying high precision and accuracy for targets within 8 mm (in comparison with
such change are not preserved in the rock record in which such 5 mm for standard sample holders) of the center of the specimen-containing
assessment can be based only on indirect proxies and inferences discs (see SI Methods for details).
of physiology based on isotopic analyses.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank J. Shen-Miller, A. K. Garcia, and S. Loyd for
For cyanobacterial communities, such problems have been reviews of a draft of this manuscript; Thomas N. Taylor for serving as editor
overcome by nearly 50 y of studies that have documented their of this contribution; and Bo Barker Jørgensen, Timothy W. Lyons, and two
evolutionary conservatism in many deposits and scores of taxa anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript submitted.
belonging to diverse cyanobacterial families. In addition, their J.W.S. and M.R.W. thank their colleagues in the Precambrian Paleobiology
Research Group for collection of the samples studied and acknowledge par-
hypobradytelic evolution is evidenced by numerous proxies—not ticularly the late H. J. Hofmann, who, with J.W.S., was first to investigate
only the habitat, community fabric, cellular morphology, and fossil-bearing cherts from the studied localities. V.A.G. and C.E. thank
isotopic composition of preserved microbes but also their ta- A. Fonseca and N. Ruiz-Tagle for contributing to data analysis and Fondo
phonomy, patterns of cell division, modes of colony and filament Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (Projects 1070552 and
1110786) and the project International Census of Marine Microbes. A.B.K.
formation, inferred behavior, and the structure and form of the was supported by the UCLA Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin
distinctively layered millimetric to decimetric photic-zone stro- of Life and the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center. M.R.W. acknowl-
matolites and bioherms they produce (e.g., refs. 6, 19–21, 26–31, edges support by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP1093106.
and 44). A comparable array of data are not available for sulfur- M.J.V.K. acknowledges support by the International Commission of Stratig-
raphy and the University of New South Wales. K.H.W., R.K., and J.W.V. were
cycling biotas. supported by the University of Wisconsin Astrobiology Research Consor-
Finally, unlike cyanobacteria for which “essentially all of the tium, funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute. For his current work at
salient morphological features used in the taxonomic classification Jet Propulsion Laboratory, K.H.W. acknowledges a grant from NASA.

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