Fossilized lipids preserved in sedimentary rocks offer singular insights into the Earth's
palaeobiology. These 'biomarkers' encode information pertaining to the oxygenation of the …

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids are membrane lipids which were long
thought to be synthesized mainly by archaea, organisms thought to be limited to extreme …

The geosphere and the microbial biosphere have co-evolved for~ 3.8 Ga, with many lines of
evidence suggesting a hydrothermal habitat for life's origin. However, the extent that …

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) of the phylum Thaumarchaeota are widespread in
marine and terrestrial habitats, playing a major role in the global nitrogen cycle. However …

The end-Permian extinction is associated with a mysterious disruption to Earth's carbon
cycle. Here we identify causal mechanisms via three observations. First, we show that …

Background The surface of marine animals is covered by abundant and diversified microbial
communities, which have major roles for the health of their host. While such microbiomes …

Understanding how Earth has sustained surface liquid water throughout its history remains a
key challenge, given that the Sun's luminosity was much lower in the past. Here we show …

Microbial methanogenesis may have been a major component of Earth's carbon cycle
during the Archaean eon, generating a methane greenhouse that increased global …

It is often assumed that life originated and diversified in the oceans prior to colonizing the
land. However, environmental constraints in chemical evolution models point towards critical …

For more than 3.5 billion years, life experienced dramatic environmental extremes on Earth.
These include shifts from oxygen-less to overoxygenated atmospheres and cycling between …