early earth lab
Recent work
Recent papers from our group!
This study reports evidence for preserved chitin in ancient trilobite fossils. Understanding how biological material survives over geologic time can help inform the effects of life on records of the long-term carbon cycle, as well as the search for preserved evidence of life in other ancient materials.
This paper uses iron X-ray spectroscopy to investigate the chemical conditions recorded by carbonate minerals in meteorites. Those records reveal how water and redox chemistry changed asteroid parent bodies—and help constrain the chemical environments of early Solar System materials relevant to life’s origins.
This study (led by Eva Zlimen) models how the migration of giant planets could send icy material toward Uranus and Neptune, altering their atmospheres. It connects the Solar System’s early dynamical evolution to the planets we observe today.
Image credits: NASA/A. El Albani/University of Poitiers/Erik Simonsen/Getty Images