Abstract The Archean era (4 to 2.5 billion years ago, Ga) yielded rocks that include the
oldest conclusive traces of life as well as many controversial occurrences. Carbonaceous …

The recognition of past habitable environments on Mars has increased the urgency to
understand biosignature preservation in and characterize analogues of these environments …

The ancestors of cyanobacteria generated Earth's first biogenic molecular oxygen, but how
they dealt with oxidative stress remains unconstrained. Here we investigate when …

The record of the coevolution of oxygenic phototrophs and the environment is preserved in
three forms: genomes of modern organisms, diverse geochemical signals of surface …

It is often acknowledged that the search for life on Mars might produce false positive results,
particularly via the detection of objects, patterns or substances that resemble the products of …

The rise of molecular oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere and oceans was one of the most
consequential changes in Earth's history. While most research focuses on the Great …

Studies investigating the structure and diversity of Earth's record of life older than 3.2 Ga are
restricted to two locations worldwide in which sedimentary rocks have escaped regional …

The invasion of the land was a complex, protracted process, punctuated by mass extinctions,
that involved multiple routes from marine environments. We integrate paleobiology …

To date, microbialites include five groups: stromatolites, thrombolites, leiolites, and
dendrolites. All these microbialites occur in carbonate or silica lithologies. However …

Abundant and well-preserved fossil microbenthos occurs in siliciclastic deposits of all Earth
ages, from the early Archean to today. Studies in modern settings show how microbenthos …