Manuel Reinhardt

University of Göttingen | GAUG · Department of Geobiology

Available under: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gbi.12284 Fossil derivatives of isorenieratene, an accessory pigment in brown‐colored green sulfur bacteria, are often used as tracers for photic zone anoxia through Earth's history, but their diagenetic behavior is still incompletely understood. Here, we assess the preservation of isor...

Organic matter in Archean hydrothermal cherts may provide an important archive for molecular traces of the earliest life on Earth. The geobiological interpretation of this archive, however, requires a sound understanding of organic matter preservation and alteration in hydrothermal systems. Here we report on organic matter (including molecular bios...

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) onboard the ExoMars 2020 rover (to be landed in March 2021) utilizes pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with the aim to detect organic molecules in martian (sub-) surface materials. Pyrolysis, however, may thermally destroy and transform organic matter depending on the temperature and na...

Earth’s crust contains a substantial proportion of global biomass, hosting microbial life up to several kilometers depth. Yet, knowledge of the evolution and extent of life in this environment remains elusive and patchy. Here we present isotopic, molecular and morphological signatures for deep ancient life in vein mineral specimens from mines distr...

Microbial life on Earth was well established in the Paleoarchean, but insight into early ecosystem diversity and thus, the complexity of the early biological carbon cycle is limited. Here we investigated four carbonaceous chert samples from the lower platform facies of the ca. 3.42-billion-year-old Buck Reef Chert, Barberton greenstone belt. The an...

Deep fracture‐hosted fluids of Precambrian bedrock cratons are relatively stagnant over long time spans compared to near‐surface systems. However, episodic events, such as fracture reactivations, transgressions, and deglaciations, may introduce dilute water, replacing, and mixing with the deep continental brines, thereby sparking microbial activity...

Carbonaceous matter (CM) in Archean rocks represents a valuable archive for the reconstruction of early life. Here we investigate the nature of CM preserved in ~ 3.5 Ga old black bedded barites from the Dresser Formation (Pilbara Carton, Western Australia). Using light microscopy and high-resolution Raman mapping, three pop- ulations of CM were rec...

In impact crater lakes, the lacustrine sedimentary records may not solely reflect climatic changes but also potential erosional effects from lithologically distinct impactite formations. The hydrochemical and biogeochemical processes during the deposition of the Nördlinger Ries impact crater lake, which fall in the range of the mid-Miocene Climate...

Recent studies have shown that biosignatures of ancient microbial life exist in mineral coatings in deep bedrock fractures of Precambrian cratons, but such surveys have been few and far between. Here, we report results from southwestern Sweden in an area of 1.6–1.5 Ga Paleoproterozoic rocks heavily reworked by the 1.14–0.96 Ga Sveconorwegian orogen...

The emergence and diversification of eukaryotes during the Proterozoic is one of the most fundamental evolutionary developments in Earth’s history. The ca. 1-billion-year-old Lakhanda Lagerstätte (Siberia, Russia) contains a wealth of eukaryotic body fossils and offers an important glimpse into their ecosystem. Seeking to complement the paleontolog...

The 3.42 Ga Buck Reef Chert (Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa) provides a rare sequence of exceptionally well preserved silicified microbial mats, containing abundant kerogen. We investigated this macromolecular organic material (cherts from drill cores, Barberton Drilling Project - Peering into the Cradle of Life) on structural (microscopy,...

Available under: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0003-C1C2-7 The search for extraterrestrial life is one of the greatest scientific quests of our time. The ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2020 rover mission seeks to find evidence for past or modern life on Mars by investigating (sub-)surface sediments at Oxia Planum for molecular biosignatures....

Organic matter in Archean hydrothermal cherts may provide an important archive for molecular traces of earliest life on Earth. The geobiological interpretation of this archive, however, requires a sound understanding of organic matter preservation and alteration in hydrothermal systems. Here we report on organic matter (including molecular biosigna...

Archaean hydrothermal chert veins commonly contain abundant organic carbon of uncertain origin (abiotic vs. biotic). In this study, we analysed kerogen contained in a hydrothermal chert vein from the ca. 3.5 Ga Dresser Formation (Pilbara Craton, Western Australia). Catalytic hydropyrolysis (HyPy) of this kerogen yielded n-alkanes up to n-C22, with...

Archaean hydrothermal chert veins commonly contain abundant organic carbon of uncertain origin (abiotic vs. biotic). In this study, we analysed kerogen contained in a hydrothermal chert vein from the ca. 3.5 Ga old Dresser Formation (Pilbara Craton, Western Australia). Catalytic hydropyrolysis (HyPy) of this kerogen yielded n-alkanes up to n-C22, w...