Author:

Wriddhiman Ghosh, Somnath Mallick, Prabir Kumar Halder, Baishali Pal, Subhas Chandra Maikap & Sujoy Kumar Das Gupta

Date: 17 July 2012

Abstract:

Silica and travertine deposits, the two most common surface manifestations of terrestrial hot springs, have so far been the only markers universally helpful in locating and interpreting geothermal systems and past lifeforms potentially associated with them. In the current study we for the first time report microbial fossils from a third type of geothermal sinter, viz., the boron mineral deposits, which are characteristic of the relatively uncommon silicate-poor hot springs. Organic biomarker analyses of the boratic sinters framing the hot springs of Puga valley, Ladakh identified molecular fossils (viz. respiratory and photosynthetic isoprenoid quinones and photosynthetic pigments) of a mat-like microbial community putatively comprised of algae, fungi, cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic bacteria, some of which may be proteobacteria. So far as microfossil preservation is concerned, mineralized mat-like biofabrics with diverse cellular morphotypes could be identified in scanning electron microscopy of sub-recent sediments as well as hard and consolidated old sinters. Though this putative past community is quite unusual in volcanic niches, its ubiquitous and enduring presence in the Puga geothermal area is highlighted by the discovery of its biosignatures along all the three dimensions of the explored boratic deposits. These findings usher a new paradigm of looking at past or present geothermal life in as well as outside the Earth.

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