Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils

By M. Brasier, O. Green, A. Jephcoat, A. Kleppe, M. V. Kranendonk, J. Lindsay, Andrew Steele, N. Grassineau. Nature, 2002

850 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Geochemistry and Petrology, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5748fb8f1fe191ef05807e5e3b5e9d22fe8dd13e

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Citations in the corpus

Microbiological processes in banded iron formation deposition (2013, background): “A re-examination of the Apex chert by Brasier et al. (2002, 2005), however, called into question the biogenicity of the filamentous structures and the sedimentary origins of the earliest ‘fossiliferous’ deposits, citing Fischer–Tropsch-type reactions associated with sea floor hydrothermal systems.”
The Geological Succession of Primary Producers in the Oceans (2007, background): “Recently, not only their systematic interpretation but their fundamental interpretation as biogenic has been called into question (Brasier et al. 2002, 2005, 2006).”
Modes of Biomineralization of Magnetite by Microbes (2007, background): “5 billion year old cherts from western Australia (Schopf and Packer 1987; Schopf 1993), have recently been the subject of intense debate (Brasier et al. 2002; Dalton 2002).”
Astrobiology: The Study of the Living Universe (2005, background): “Brasier et al. (2002) find the filamentous structures in several different geologic clasts as well as the surrounding chert matrix, challenging the argument (Schopf 1993) that the structures represent fossils preserved in an older unit that was then transported and redeposited in a bedded chert.”
Evolution of a habitable planet (2003, background): “Claims that a diverse assemblage of bacteria existed in Australia 3.5 Ga (Schopf 1993) have been recently disputed (Brasier et al. 2002).”
Processes of carbonate precipitation in modern microbial mats (2009, background): “Abiotic mechanisms that produce organic molecules exist but require special conditions, such as hydrothermal metasomatism (e.g., Fischer– Tropsch type reaction; Anderson et al., 1984; Brasier et al., 2002; Foustoukos and Seyfried, 2004).”
Molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis (2002, background): “The nature of the organism that gave rise to these microfossils has been controversial and questions even about whether they are biogenic in origin have been raised (Brasier et al., 2002), although current evidence suggests that they are indeed biogenic (Schopf, 2011; Schopf and Kudryavtsev, 2012).”