B1067 - GEOBIOLOGIA DELLA TERRA PRIMITIVA

Learning outcomes

The student will have knowledge on the habitability conditions of the Early Earth, on the Archean geobiology, especially on to the Paleoarchean, and of the related fossil record. The student will have a critical vision of how and when Earth become house for life, where life first appeared on Earth, how it evolved, how and where it was preserved in the fossil record and how to recognize it. Furthermore, the student will be introduced to the concept of biosignature and to the most advanced techniques for life detection, and to the biogenicity problem. The student will learn to prepare samples for optical, SEM-EDX, Raman and CLSM microscopies.

Course contents

Archean paleoenviroments and fossil record. Biogenicity problem. Analitycal technics applied to the early fossil record.

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture Slides.

Scientific papers.

• Noffke N., 2010. Geobiology: Microbial Mats in Sandy Deposits from the Archean Era to Today. Springer Nature. 194 pages.
• Knoll A.H., Canfield D.E., Konhauser K.O., 2012. Fundamentals of Geobiology. Blackwell Pub. 443 pages.
• Hazen R.M., 2017. Breve storia della Terra. Il Saggiatore ed. 430 pages.

Teaching methods

In presence lectures and laboratory activities.

Assessment methods

Practical examination.

Teaching tools

Video projector and PC. Lab activities will involve the following labs: astrobiology Lab., optical microscopy Lab., electron microscopy lab., and raman lab.

Office hours

See the website of Barbara Cavalazzi