{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T09:10:59Z","timestamp":1790759459668,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Geological Society of America","issue":"12","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>The first 2 b.y. of Earth\u2019s history was an important time for life when microbes evolved and diversified into essentially all of the metabolic forms that now exist. Because of feedbacks between biology and the surface environment, understanding Earth\u2019s biological history can help us understand the evolution of Earth itself. The morphological and geochemical evidence for this ancient biological history is sparse but is increasing. Here we report evidence for 2.52 Ga exceptionally large, organic, smooth-walled, coccoidal microfossils preserved in a deep-water black chert in the Gamohaan Formation of the Kaapvaal craton of South Africa. These fossils occur mainly as compressed solitary coccoids that range in size from 20 to 265 \u00b5m but occasionally occur in short chains of cells. Morphologically these fossils are similar to Proterozoic and Phanerozoic acritarchs and to certain Archean fossils interpreted as possible cyanobacteria. However, their exceptionally large size, simple cell wall microstructure, and paleoecological setting, as well as multiple sulfur isotope systematics of pyrite within the unit, suggest that the Gamohaan Formation fossils were sulfur-oxidizing bacteria similar to those of the modern genus Thiomargarita, organisms that live in anoxic and sulfidic deep-water settings. These are the oldest reported fossil sulfur bacteria and reveal a diversity of life and ecosystems, previously only interpreted from geochemical proxies, just prior to the Great Oxidation Event, a time of major atmospheric evolution.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1130\/g38150.1","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,10,8]],"date-time":"2016-10-08T03:08:21Z","timestamp":1475896101000},"page":"983-986","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria prior to the Great Oxidation Event from the 2.52 Ga Gamohaan Formation of South Africa"],"prefix":"10.1130","volume":"44","author":[{"given":"Andrew D.","family":"Czaja","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"1Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210013, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0013, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicolas J.","family":"Beukes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"2CIMERA, Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jeffrey T.","family":"Osterhout","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210013, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0013, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"257","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2024072522040947400_b1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"397","DOI":"10.1111\/gbi.12046","article-title":"Filamentous sulfur bacteria preserved in modern and ancient phosphatic sediments: Implications for the role of oxygen and bacteria in phosphogenesis","volume":"11","author":"Bailey","year":"2013","journal-title":"Geobiology"},{"key":"2024072522040947400_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0037-0738(87)90002-9","article-title":"Facies relations, depositional environments and diagenesis in a major early Proterozoic 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