Martin Brasier

Martin David Brasier (born April 12, 1947 in Wimbledon , † December 16, 2014 in Burford ) was an English paleobiologist and astrobiologist .

Life and professional career

Martin Brasier was Professor of Paleobiology and Astrobiology at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall . At UNESCO he was initially secretary and then head of the International Geoscience Program . At the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), he led the project to establish the Precambrian-Cambrian border .

In addition to the University of Oxford, the University of London served as his alma mater . He began his studies with the latter, where he completed his intermediate diploma ( BSc ) and finally his doctorate ( Ph.D. ). His diploma ( MA he had acquired at the University of Oxford). Martin Brasier was also associated with the following universities:

• University of Reading
• University of Hull
• Memorial University of Newfoundland

Martin Brasier was also a member of the British Geological Survey (BGS) and a Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS) and a Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS). Martin Brasier's specialist disciplines were paleontology , evolutionary biology , micropalaeontology and astrobiology .

Martin Brasier died in a car accident at Burford, Oxfordshire on December 16, 2014 .

Research contributions

In his research, Martin Brasier subjected the early fossil record to a very critical investigation in terms of context and character. He used classical methods such as field work, profile photographs and optical petrography . But isotope geochemistry , confocal microscope and NanoSims micro- samples were also used, and he also used lasers for high-resolution 3D scanning and Raman spectroscopy .

Martin Brasier provided significant research on the problem of the apex chert , where he critically examined the 3460 million year old microfossils under the leadership of NASA . The so-called Brasier- Schopf debate then developed from this . He also edited the 3,430 million year old Strelley Pool fossils , the first well-preserved cells in the fossil record . He developed his pumice hypothesis to explain the chemical evolution of life . He also mapped the first traces of life on the mainland in the 1000 million year old sediments of the Torridonian Supergroup . Finally, he specialized in paleoecology , morphological development and evolution of living things in the Ediacarian and Cambrian .

Initial descriptions

Reconstruction of Haootia quadriformis

In 2014, Martin Brasier, together with Liu, Matthews, Menon and McIlroy, was the first scientific descriptor of the Haootia quadriformis fossil from the Ediacaran fauna .

Awards

In 2014, Martin Brasier received the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London for his many years of research . His book Secret Chambers: the inside story of cells and complex life was nominated for a book award by the Royal Society of Biology in 2013 .

Publications

Books

Martin Brasier published a textbook on microfossils as early as 1980. In 1989, together with JW Cowie, he wrote a monograph on the Precambrian-Cambrian border, which had been determined on the basis of a profile in Newfoundland as the first appearance of the vertically built trace fossil Treptichnus pedum . He continued this topic in 2009 in his book Darwin's Lost World , which was published as a publication to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin . This was followed in 2012 by the book Secret Chambers: the inside story of cells and complex life , in which Martin Brasier explores the symbiotic origins of eukaryotic chloroplasts and traces their evolution over the past 2000 million years. In this work he also deals with the ideas of Robert Hooke , Elso S. Barghoorn , Thomas Cavalier-Smith and Lynn Margulis , and finally into the period of evolutionary history that he calls the boring 1000 million years (from 1700 to around 700 million years Years BP ).

• Brasier, MD: Secret Chambers: the inside story of cells and complex life . Oxford University Press , 2012, pp. 298 .
• Brasier, MD: Darwin's Lost World: the hidden history of animal life . Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 322 .
• Cowie, JW and Brasier, MD: The Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary . In: Oxford Monographs in Geology and Geophysics . No. 12, 1989.
• Brasier, MD: Microfossils . George Allen & Unwin , London 1980, pp. 193 .

Scientific contributions

• Brasier, MD, Antcliffe, J., Saunders, M. and Wacey, D .: Changing the picture of Earth's earliest fossils (3.5 - 1.9 Ga) with new approaches and new discoveries . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 112 No. 16, 2015, p. 4859-4864 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1405338111 . (published posthumously)
• Landing, E., Geyer, G., Brasier, MD and Bowring, SA: Cambrian Evolutionary Radiation: context, correlation, and chronostratigraphy - overcoming deficiencies of the First Appearance Datum (FAD) concept . In: Earth Science Reviews . tape 123 , 2013, pp. 133-172 .
• Brasier, MD, Matthewman, R., McMahon, S. and Wacey, D .: Pumice as a remarkable substrate for the origins of life . In: Astrobiology . tape 7 , 2011, p. 725-735 .
• Wacey, D., Kilburn, M., Saunders, M., Cliff, J. and Brasier, MD: Microfossils of sulfur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia . In: Nature Geoscience . tape 4 , 2011, p. 698-702 .
• Strother, PK, Battison, L., Brasier, MD and Wellman, CH: Earth's earliest non-marine eukaryotes . In: Nature . tape 403 , 2011, pp. 505-509 .
• Brasier, MD and Antcliffe, JB: Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota: new insights from Laser Analysis . In: Journal of the Geological Society . tape 166 , 2009, p. 363-384 .
• Brasier, MD and Antcliffe, J .: Decoding the Ediacaran Enigma . In: Science . tape 305 , 2004, pp. 1115-1117 .
• Brasier, MD, Green, OR, Jephcoat, AP, Kleppe, AK, Van Kranendonk, MJ, Lindsay, JF, Steele, A. and Grassineau, NV: Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils . In: Nature . tape 416 , 2002, pp. 76-81 .
• Brasier, MD and Lindsay, JF: A billion years of environmental stability and the emergence of eukaryotes. New data from northern Australia . In: Geology . tape 26 , 1998, pp. 555-558 .
• Brasier, MD, Cowie, JW and Taylor, ME: Decision on the Precambrian- Cambrian boundary stratotype . In: Episodes . tape 17 , 1994, p. 3-8 .
• Brasier, MD: The Cambrian radiation event . In: House, MR 'The Origin of Major Invertebrate Groups' (Ed.): Systematics Association Special Volume . tape 12 , 1979, pp. 103-159 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gideon Henderson: Professor Martin Brasier, RIP . Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford 2014.
2. ↑ Liu, AG, Matthews, JJ, Menon, LR, McIlroy, D. and Brasier, MD: Haootia quadriformis n. Gen., N. Sp., Interpreted as a muscular cnidarian impression from the Late Ediacaran period (approx. 560 Ma ) . In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . tape 281 (1793) , 2014, pp. 20141202 , doi : 10.1098 / rspb.2014.1202 .