Scientists have discovered traces of one of the first multicellular algae. The corresponding article was published in Nature Communications.

Specialists from the University of Liege (Belgium) discovered the transformed remains of chlorophyll in a microscopic fossil found in the Congo River basin. The organism that left it is one of the most ancient phototrophic eukaryotes found in the fossil record.

The advent of photosynthesis was a major step in the evolution of life, as it allowed for the absorption of a lot of energy and radically changed the conditions on Earth. Very little is known about the first such organisms, as they are hardly represented in the fossil record, and identifying their metabolic products in fossils is the key to discovering these ancient life forms.

Scientists led by Marie Sforna used X-ray absorption spectroscopy on synchrotron radiation sources to detect traces of such a metabolism in carbonaceous films from fossil shale. The analysis showed the presence of nickel porphyrins in Arctacellularia tetragonala cells about a billion years old. “We identified these fragments as derivatives of chlorophyll, which suggests that A. tetragonala was a photosynthetic alga, one of the first of its kind,” the authors write.

The new methodology will give paleontologists additional opportunities to study organisms about a billion years old and will allow to explore the evolution of life at a new level.

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