Toppling the Boring Billion: Biomarkers, orbital cycles and primordial life

该项目旨在发现与矿石形成有关的微生物过程，以了解锌和铅矿物是如何在澳大利亚古代海洋的沉积物中形成的。1800至8亿年前的地质时期--“无聊的十亿年"--可能拥有颜色波动的海洋。从16亿年前的沉积物中出土的化石生物分子描绘了一幅古代海洋在紫色和绿色细菌的繁盛之间振荡的画面，沃茨在有毒和硫化物之间迅速交替，并富含溶解的铁。基于这些观察，该项目旨在发现原始生态系统的动态性质，调查古代海洋如何受到地球绕太阳轨道的控制，并探索微生物如何形成世界上最大的锌矿床。

This project aims to discover microbiological processes involved in ore formation in order to understand how zinc and lead minerals formed in the sediments of Australia’s ancient seas. The apparent ‘Boring Billion’ – the geological period 1800 to 800 million years ago – may have harboured seas of fluctuating colours. Fossil biomolecules, unearthed from 1.6 billion years old sediments, draw a picture of ancient seas oscillating between blooms of purple and green bacteria, with waters rapidly alternating between toxic and sulphidic and rich in dissolved iron. Based on these observations, the project aims to discover the dynamic nature of primordial ecosystems, investigate how ancient seas were controlled by the Earth’s orbit around the sun, and explore how microorganisms may have formed the world’s largest zinc deposits.