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Microbial mats and the early evolution of lifeMicrobial mats have descended from perhaps the oldest and most widespread biological communities known. Mats harbor microbes that are crucial for studies of bacterial phylogeny and physiology. They illustrate how several oxygen-sensitive biochemical processes have adapted to oxygen, and they show how life adapted to dry land long before the rise of plants. The search for the earliest grazing protists and metazoa in stromatolites is aided by observations of mats: in them, organic compounds characteristic of ancient photosynthetic protists can be identified. Recent mat studies suggest that the 13C/12C increase observed over geological time in stromatolitic organic matter was driven at least in part by a long-term decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Document ID
20040089908
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Des Marais, D. J.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
May 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: Trends in ecology & evolution (Personal edition)
Volume: 5
Issue: 5
ISSN: 0169-5347
Subject Category
Exobiology
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
NASA Center ARC
Review, Tutorial
NASA Program Exobiology
NASA Discipline Exobiology
Review
NASA Discipline Number 52-30

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