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

该项目旨在发现与成矿有关的微生物过程，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。表面上看起来“枯燥的十亿”--1800到8亿年前的地质时期--可能蕴藏着色彩起伏的海洋。从16亿年前的沉积物中发现的化石生物分子描绘了一幅古代海洋在紫色和绿色细菌之间振荡的图景，海水在有毒和硫酸盐之间迅速交替，并富含溶解铁。基于这些观察，该项目旨在发现原始生态系统的动态性质，调查古代海洋是如何被地球围绕太阳的轨道控制的，并探索微生物可能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.