Recognition of Fossil Prokaryotes in Cretaceous Methane Seep Carbonates: Relevance to Astrobiology

Recovery of prokaryotic body fossils from methane seep carbonates such as those of the Cretaceous Tepee Buttes of Colorado serves as a model for sampling in future astrobiological missions. The fossils, found primarily at the interface between paragenetic fabrics, suggest a sharp physicochemical gradient. Evidence of these microbial fossils occurs at a variety of scales. In the field, microbialite is found as meter-scale thrombolitic zones and centimeterscale stromatolitic crusts lining voids inferred to be the sites of ancient methane seepage. Petrographic fabrics suggestive of microbialite include indistinct peloids (0.1–1 mm in diameter) and crusts of authigenic micrite. Primary evidence obtained from scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis comprises pinnate bacteria (0.3 µm in diameter and 1–1.5 µm long), sheaths (2–4 µm in diameter), coccoids (0.5–1 µm in diameter, up to 40 per cluster), and the presence of framboidal pyrite (6–8 µm in diameter). These results are in agreement with studies of other ancient and modern seeps and suggest a morphological conservatism of microbial form that can be incorporated into studies of extraterrestrial environments where it is presumed that reduced gases drive the metabolic activity of prokaryote-like organisms. Target areas that could serve as conduits for reduced gas seeps include tectonic or impact-driven faulting, zones of cryosphere melting, or other disruptions in crustal coherence. Ancient seeps, preserved as localized anomalous evaporite deposits in the sedimentary cover, could be detected by remote sensing. Astrobiology 4, 438–449.