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Published May 2011 | public
Journal Article

Identification of carotane breakdown products in the 1.64 billion year old Barney Creek Formation, McArthur Basin, northern Australia

Abstract

Some of the oldest, indisputably indigenous, and thermally exceptionally well preserved biomarkers occur in the uppermost sections of the 1.64 billion year old (Ga) Barney Creek Formation (BCF) of the McArthur Basin in northern Australia. These rocks preserve more than 22 different C_(40) carotenoid derivatives, including the saturated hydrocarbons β-carotane, γ-carotane and lycopane. However, in deeper sections of the BCF, saturated carotenoid derivatives were not detected. To determine whether their absence from the deeper sections is a primary biological phenomenon or the result of degradation, we simulated the catagenesis of β-carotane in the laboratory by way of hydrous pyrolysis. Using breakdown products as elution standards, we were able to confirm the presence of β- or γ-carotane derivatives in the deeper sections, where the C_(40) parent compounds had been degraded.

Additional Information

© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. Received 10 August 2010; received in revised form 16 February 2011; accepted 18 February 2011; available online 23 February 2011. We thank J. Hope, J. Wykes, J. Mavrogenes and J. Cowley for technical advice and support, A.J.M. Jarrett for proof reading and editing, and M.D. Lewan and T. Ruble for expert advice on pyrolysis techniques. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for generous feedback. The work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0557499).

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023