New article in Geobiology
This article presents the first evidence of the presence of intracellular amorphous granules of alkaline-earth metal (AEM) carbonates (Ca, Sr and Ba) in unicellular eukaryotes. These inclusions, named micropearls, show concentric and oscillatory zoning on a nanometric scale. Widespread in certain phytoplankters of Lake Geneva, they represent a previously unknown type of non-skeletal biomineralization, revealing an unexpected pathway in the geochemical cycle of AEMs.
October 11, 2016Highlights