Pilbara microfossils: Nano-sims tests for biogenicity
Photo: (Left to right) Dr Dorothy Oehler, Prof. Malcolm Walter and Dr. Yves Marrocchi with the Nano-sims
Early in April, 2009, Malcolm Walter, Director of the ACA, spent several days visiting the Centro de AstroBiologia in Madrid and then went to Paris to work with Dr Dorothy Oehler of the Johnson Space Centre and Prof. Francois Robert and others at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. There he participated in Nano-sims analyses of ~3.0 Ga microfossils from the Pilbara region of Australia, helping to obtain elemental and isotopic analyses to test the biogenicity of the fossils.
References:
Sugitani, K., Grey, K., Allwood, A., Nagaoka, T., Mimura, K., Minami, M., Marshall, C. P., Van Kranendonk, M. J. & Walter, M. R. 2007. Diverse microstructures from Archaean chert from the Mount Goldsworthy-Mount Grant area, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia: Microfossils, dubiofossils, or pseudofossils? Precambrian Research, 158: 228-262.
Oehler, D.Z., Robert, R., Walter, M.R., Sugitani, K., Allwood, A., Meibom, A., Mostefaoui, S., Selo, M., Thomen, A., and Gibson, E.K., (in press). NANOSIMS: Insights to biogenicity and syngeneity of Archaean Carbonaceous structures. Precambrian Research.