Corsetti Frank A, Awramik Stanley M, Pierce David
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Apr 15;100(8):4399-404. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0730560100. Epub 2003 Apr 7.
A thin carbonate unit associated with a Sturtian-age ( approximately 750-700 million years ago) glaciogenic diamictite of the Neoproterozoic Kingston Peak Formation, eastern California, contains microfossil evidence of a once-thriving prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial community (preserved in chert and carbonate). Stratiform stromatolites, oncoids, and rare columnar stromatolites also occur. The microbial fossils, which include putative autotrophic and heterotrophic eukaryotes, are similar to those found in chert in the underlying preglacial units. They indicate that microbial life adapted to shallow-water carbonate environments did not suffer the significant extinction postulated for this phase of low-latitude glaciation and that trophic complexity survived through snowball Earth times.
在加利福尼亚州东部新元古代金斯敦峰组的斯图尔特纪（约7.5亿至7亿年前）成冰期杂砾岩中，有一个与之相关的薄层碳酸盐单元，其中包含曾经繁盛的原核和真核微生物群落的微化石证据（保存在燧石和碳酸盐中）。还出现了层状叠层石、核形石和罕见的柱状叠层石。这些微生物化石包括假定的自养和异养真核生物，与下伏冰前单元燧石中发现的化石相似。它们表明，适应浅水碳酸盐环境的微生物生命并没有遭受低纬度冰川作用这一阶段假定的重大灭绝，而且营养复杂性在雪球地球时期得以幸存。
