Some time ago Buick (1984) cast doubt on both the biogenicity and the age of the objects we described as Early Archean bacterial microfossils in a previous paper (Awramik et al., 1983). He presented new evidence significant to the interpretation of these objects, but his report also contains statements that may be misleading. We wish to comment on his new evidence and to correct the misleading ...

The significant degradation that fossilized biomolecules may experience during burial makes it challenging to assess the biogenicity of organic microstructures in ancient rocks. Here we investigate the molecular signatures of 1.88 Ga Gunflint organic microfossils as a function of their diagenetic history. Synchrotron-based XANES data collected in situ on individual microfossils, at the submicro...

Rice (Oryza sativa) is regarded as the only grass that was selected for cultivation and eventual domestication in the Yangtze basin of China. Although both macro-fossils and micro-fossils of rice have been recovered from the Early Neolithic site of Shangshan, dating to more than 10,000 years before present (BP), we report evidence of phytolith and starch microfossils taken from stone tools, bot...

T he archaeological record contains only scattered and incomplete clues to the scope and complexity of past human behavior, and archaeologists must develop every possible source of useful information. Although much overused of late, the truism that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence holds particular force in archaeology and nowhere more than in the prehistory of human–plant interact...

The study of very ancient microfossils has recently raised contentious issues regarding interpretation of the biogenicity of the structures. In situ investigation of certain elements such as sulfur within potential microfossils is a powerful complement to other methods of investigation that can provide valuable information on biogenicity. We present here a first such study on Precambrian microf...

Microfossils present in Quaternary micrites from Serra da Bodoquena, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil, are here described for the first time. The studied taxa are: a) ostracods: Candona sp., Candonopsis sp., Cyclocypris sp., Cypria sp., Cypridopsis sp., Notodromas sp., Ilyocypris sp., Cyprideis sp., Wolburgiopsis cf. chinamuertensis (Musacchio 1970), Darwinula sp. and 5 morphotypes; b) microgas...

Doubly polished thin sections, originally prepared for fluid inclusion studies, present great advantages in the study of microfossils in volcanic rocks. Better visibility and light conditions, variation in thickness of the thin sections and the possibility to combine fluid inclusion studies with microfossil studies lead to a wide range of advantages over ordinary thin sections. This includes th...