Biomarker Evidence for Green and Purple Sulphur Bacteria in a Stratified Palaeoproterozoic

1.64 billion years ago, hydrocarbon biomarkers from a northern Australian basin reveal the ecological structure of mid-Proterozoic marine communities. The data indicate an anoxic, sulphidic, and permanently stratified marine environment, supporting evidence that oxygen levels remained below modern levels for a long period after the Great Oxidation Event. This dataset provides molecular fossil evidence for the co-existence of phototrophic purple and green sulphur bacteria.

Use Cases

• Modeling mid-Proterozoic ocean chemistry and redox conditions based on biomarker evidence.
• Studying the ecological niches of ancient phototrophic sulphur bacteria (Chromatiaceae and Chlorobiaceae).
• Investigating the timeline and environmental consequences of the Great Oxidation Event (~2.45-2.32 Gyr ago).
• Correlating the disappearance of banded iron formations (~1.8 Gyr ago) with changes in marine sulphate and oxygen concentrations.

Strengths

• Provides specific biomarker evidence (okenane) for phototrophic purple sulphur bacteria from a 1.64-Gyr-old sample.
• Directly addresses a key interval (mid-Proterozoic, 1.8-0.8 Gyr ago) in Earth's geochemical evolution.
• Cross-platform presence on a government data portal suggests formal publication and importance.

Limitations

• Column names and row counts are not provided, limiting assessment of data structure and scale.
• Metadata for size, license, and author is listed as 'unknown' or 'None' across all entries.
• The dataset appears to be a published paper's findings, which may limit raw data accessibility.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, likely associated with a published scientific journal paper.

Collection Method

Analysis of hydrocarbon biomarkers (molecular fossils) from a geological basin.

Time Range

Sample is from 1.64 billion years ago, within the mid-Proterozoic interval (1.8-0.8 billion years ago).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 06:18:03.249752

Geography

Northern Australia.