How life endured the Snowball Earth: Evidence from Antarctic meltwater ponds

 



The scientists found that eukaryotes -- complex cellular lifeforms that eventually evolved into the diverse multicellular life we see today -- could have survived the global freeze by living in shallow pools of water. These small, watery oases may have persisted atop relatively shallow ice sheets present in equatorial regions. There, the ice surface could accumulate dark-colored dust and debris from below, which enhanced its ability to melt into pools. At temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Celsius, the resulting meltwater ponds could have served as habitable environments for certain forms of early complex life.

The team drew its conclusions based on an analysis of modern-day meltwater ponds. Today in Antarctica, small pools of melted ice can be found along the margins of ice sheets. The conditions along these polar ice sheets are similar to what likely existed along ice sheets near the equator during Snowball Earth.

The researchers analyzed samples from a variety of meltwater ponds located on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in an area that was first described by members of Robert Falcon Scott's 1903 expedition as "dirty ice." The MIT researchers discovered clear signatures of eukaryotic life in every pond. The communities of eukaryotes varied from pond to pond, revealing a surprising diversity of life across the setting. The team also found that salinity plays a key role in the kind of life a pond can host: Ponds that were more brackish or salty had more similar eukaryotic communities, which differed from those in ponds with fresher waters.

"We've shown that meltwater ponds are valid candidates for where early eukaryotes could have sheltered during these planet-wide glaciation events," says lead author Fatima Husain, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). "This shows us that diversity is present and possible in these sorts of settings. It's really a story of life's resilience."



The study's MIT co-authors include Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology Roger Summons and former postdoct Thomas Evans, along with Jasmin Millar of Cardiff University, Anne Jungblut at the Natural History Museum in London, and Ian Hawes of the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

#CellBiology
#CellStructure
#CellMembrane
#Nucleus
#Mitochondria
#Cytoplasm
#EukaryoticCells
#ProkaryoticCells
#Microscopy
#InsideTheCell

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