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Confocal laser scanning microscopy and Raman imagery of the late Neoproterozoic Chichkan microbiota of South Kazakhstan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2017

J. William Schopf ,
Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev  and
Vladimir N. Sergeev
J. William Schopf
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life), University of California, Los Angeles 90095, and PennState Astrobiology Research Center, 435 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802
Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev
Affiliation:
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life), University of California, Los Angeles 90095, and PennState Astrobiology Research Center, 435 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802
Vladimir N. Sergeev
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per., 7, Moscow, 119017, Russia
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Abstract

Precambrian microbiotas, such as that permineralized in bedded and stromatolitic cherts of the late Neoproterozoic, 750- to 800-Ma-old, Chichkan Formation of South Kazakhstan, have traditionally been studied by optical microscopy only. Such studies, however, are incapable of documenting accurately either the three-dimensional morphology of such fossils or their chemical composition and that of their embedding minerals. As shown here by analyses of fossils of the Chichkan Lagerstätte, the solution to these long-standing problems is provided by two techniques recently introduced to paleontology: confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and Raman imagery. The two techniques are used together to characterize, in situ and at micron-scale resolution, the cellular and organismal morphology of the thin section-embedded organic-walled Chichkan fossils. In addition, Raman imagery is used to analyze the molecular-structural composition of the carbonaceous fossils and of their embedding mineral matrix, identify the composition of intracellular inclusions, and quantitatively assess the geochemical maturity of the Chichkan organic matter.

CLSM and Raman imagery are both broadly applicable to the study of fossils, whether megascopic or microscopic and regardless of mode of preservation, and both are non-intrusive and non-destructive, factors that permit their use for analyses of archived specimens. They are especially useful for the study of microscopic fossils, as is demonstrated in this first in-depth study of diverse taxa of a single Precambrian microbiota for which they provide information in three dimensions at high spatial resolution about their organismal morphology, cellular anatomy, kerogenous composition, mode of preservation, and taphonomy and fidelity of preservation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 402 - 416
Copyright
Copyright © 2010, The Paleontological Society 

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