Been looking forward to this!

Leigh Anne Riedman@fossils.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to say that my new paper with @maxlechte.bsky.social (and others not on bluesky) has come out in @nature.com! Study of sediments, geochemistry and fossils from rocks 1.75 to 1.4 billion years old indicate that the oldest known #eukaryotes were aerobic and benthic! #protists rdcu.be/fjNgL

New findings from Rika, Eva, Tony and I: We used evolutionary biology techniques to investigate how nitrogen sustained early life on Earth, and found that ammonium was key! It could have been supplied by hydrothermal activity and other planetary processes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Abiotic sources of fixed nitrogen sustained early ecosystems for several hundred million years after the origin of life

Genomic evidence suggests early life relied on ammonium and other N molecules before biological nitrogen fixation evolved.

science.org

Great to see that stromatolites can form in lakes shortly after impact events! The impact investigated here occurred ~ 42,000 years ago, so it's intriguing to wonder whether the microbial communities of the Precambrian (billions of years ago) might have responded similarly...

Science X / Phys.org@sciencex.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Layered microbial structures in the Hapcheon impact crater show geochemical signs of formation in a hot post-impact lake. Their inner layers preserve a stronger hydrothermal signal than the outer ones. doi.org/hb42z4

Looks like a great way to learn the animal evolutionary tree!

Alexis Licht@alexislicht.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Great game for taxonomists! metazooa.com

New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy - npj Complexity

npj Complexity - Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy

nature.com

Yellowstone’s colors aren’t just minerals. They’re living microbes. Heat-loving bacteria and archaea form bands as water cools, each pigment tuned to temperature and light. What looks like abstract art is a thriving ecosystem shaped by extreme heat and chemistry.

Our lab is looking for a new PhD student to contribute to research on the early evolution of microbial life. Deadline coming-up soon on Monday 19th Jan. More info here (scroll to 'How Cyanobacteria Transformed a Starved Planet'): www.bristol.ac.uk/geography/co... Feel free to DM me for questions

Detection Of The Deep Biosphere In Metamorphic Rocks From The Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling astrobiology.com/2025/12/dete... #astrobiology #extremophile

Detection Of The Deep Biosphere In Metamorphic Rocks From The Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling - Astrobiology

It is generally accepted that there is a vast, well-populated biosphere in the subsurface,

astrobiology.com

Congratulations Eva!

St Andrews Earth & Environmental Sciences@earthscista.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🎉 Huge congratulations to Eva Stüeken for being awarded an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grant! “Quantifying the limits of early life through the biogeochemical phosphorus redox cycle” This win not only celebrates Eva 👏 but also highlights our school’s strength — 6 ERC grants in the last decade! 🚀

Great to see our perspective in print! Chad, Eva, and I suggest that geological and genomic records support the idea that Earth’s first oxygenated habitats formed on the seafloor, especially in shallow benthic settings along continental shelves #geobiology #astrobiology @earthscista.bsky.social

Nature Geoscience@natgeosci.nature.com · 8mo ago

⚒️ Perspective: The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere about 2.45-2.30 billion years ago may have initiated in the oxidised bottom waters of marine shelves @earlylife.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

All Life Copies DNA Unambiguously Into Proteins. Archaea May Be The Exception. astrobiology.com/2025/12/all-... #astrobiology #originoflife #genomics

All Life Copies DNA Unambiguously Into Proteins. Archaea May Be The Exception. - Astrobiology

The beauty of the DNA code is that organisms interpret it unambiguously.

astrobiology.com

My research into the evolution of some of the world's first multicellular organisms has been published in Comms Bio! This was a team effort with microbiologists from Spain, Germany, and the UK inc. especially Dr Nieves-Morion as joint first author & microscopy expert! www.nature.com/articles/s42...

I'm preparing to give a seminar on Friday, so let's dive into the uncomfortable etymology of 'SEMINAR'. The Latin root is 'sēmen' & we're already seeing the problem? It means "seed", with all its implications: plant & animal. Have I been doing seminars wrong this whole time 😬?

Early Microbial Evolution "The origin of life on Earth remains one of the greatest and most pervasive mysteries in science. We know the story in broad strokes: Around 4 billion years ago, simple chemical compounds gave rise to living cells, which later formed..." 🦠 asm.org/articles/202...

My latest research suggests that abiotic sources of fixed nitrogen sustained Earth's early ecosystems. Preprint here: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7... Tune into the Geomicrobiology Research in Progress Meeting on Wed. at 11:45 am to find out more. @earthscista.bsky.social

Excited to have seen and heard (via bat detector) noctule bats around Kinessburn and Cockshaugh park in St. Andrews yesterday evening! One of the UK's largest species at the size of a blackbird! Big thanks to Dr. Sasha Newar and the NVC Group for organizing our sunset bat tour x.com/lizardschwar...

🎉 Now out “Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free‑living euryarchaeal‑like ancestors” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors - Nature Microbiology

Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

nature.com

A new source of ammonium to support the growth and development of early life on Earth!

Fawn Holland@fawnholland.bsky.social · last yr.

Igneous rocks… as a source of bioavailable nitrogen? 👀 First co-author paper is out! Give it a look: www.geochemicalperspectivesletters.org/article2517/

Delighted to have played a small part in Galloway et al's research on nitrogen cycling in geothermal springs at @earthscista.bsky.social. More here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Alongside some behind-the-scenes shots from fieldwork

How the weather got ‘stuck’ over the UK – and produced an unusually dry and warm spring Article in The Conversation from me and @mattpattclimate.bsky.social, discussing spring 2025, blocking and climate change. theconversation.com/how-the-weat...

How the weather got ‘stuck’ over the UK – and produced an unusually dry and warm spring

‘April showers’ were few and far between in 2025.

theconversation.com

This is the Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris), and it's just straight up a dinosaur. Like, I know *all* birds are technically avian dinosaurs, but my first thought looking at this guy is: dinosaur. (📷: Suzie McCann, eBird)

Worth watching and thinking about when we buy cod, haddock, halibut, sole, and prawns that are often trawled. I hope it says how they are caught on food labels so we can avoid bottom-trawled catches...

spencer roberts 🦈@unpopularscience.bsky.social · last yr.

I will forever be haunted by this footage. Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity. What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives. 🌎🦑🧪

I will forever be haunted by this footage. Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity. What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives. 🌎🦑🧪

🌊 🦑 🧪 ⚒️

Dr. Dawn Wright@deepseadawn.bsky.social · last yr.

Despite covering 66% of Earth's surface, the DEEP ocean remains largely unexplored. @katycroffbell.bsky.social et al. are the first to document that, in decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor!!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Brian Cox ~ The purpose of life?

Setting up my Bluesky after deciding to venture into the chatty platforms again :-) Here a post from early march summarising our last research on nitrogen on early Earth. rptu.de/newsroom/neu...

Wie entstand Leben auf der frühen Erde? Neue Stickstoffquelle entdeckt

Forschende unter Beteiligung der RPTU entschlüsseln Rätsel einer längst vergangenen Zeit: Im Rahmen von aktuellen Studien untersuchen sie, wie sich Leben auf der frühen Erde entwickelt haben könnte. D...

rptu.de

One thing I wasn't ready for as a postdoc is how much the talks you give need to change. 😅 I think a good colloquium talk takes a lot of practice to get right, and it's so much more about presenting a "big picture" than just e.g. a paper you wrote/are writing. It's so hard to get right! 🔭☄️🧪

Proud to be adding a biologist's angle to the research on ancient Earth that is going on here!

St Andrews Earth & Environmental Sciences@earthscista.bsky.social · last yr.

Hello Bluesky! 👋 We're the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. Our research spans the formation of planets to climate change. Our teaching is consistently ranked among the top in the UK for Earth Sciences 🌍🪐🌋🌡️ Find out more: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/earth-scienc...

Serpentinizing hydrothermal vents may have been where life began, but we know surprisingly little about how microbial communities interact with the phosphorus compounds they emit and/or absorb. My latest research, just published in Geobiology, addresses this question...

Happy to see this out @NatComm We found that the unicellular coastal cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp uses sodium energetics rather than the typical proton energetics to fix N2. Sodium energetics likely is more widespread and affects the global nitrogen cycle. Congrats Si Tang #microsky t.co/A4lIVcK2V3