Megascopic Eukaryotic Algae from the 2.1-Billion-Year-Old Negaunee Iron-Formation, Michigan

1992/07/10 by Tsu-Ming Han, Bruce Runnegar · 467 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Algae #China #Geology #Billion years #Paleontology #Archaeology #Botany #Biology #Geography

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1631544

published in Science 257(5067), 232-235 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

openalex publication_date 1992/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Hundreds of specimens of spirally coiled, megascopic, carbonaceous fossils resembling Grypania spiralis (Walcott), have been found in the 2.1-billion-year-old Negaunee Iron-Formation at the Empire Mine, near Marquette, Michigan. This occurrence of Grypania is 700 million to 1000 million years older than fossils from previously known sites in Montana, China, and India. As Grypania appears to have been a photosynthetic alga, this discovery places the origin of organelle-bearing eukaryotic cells prior to 2.1 billion years ago.

Citations

• Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms
• Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya.
• Bacterial evolution

Cited by

• Three-dimensional preservation of algae and animal embryos in a Neoproterozoic phosphorite
• Eukaryotic organisms in Proterozoic oceans
• Early life on land and the first terrestrial ecosystems
• Earth's Early Atmosphere
• History of life [wikipedia]