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Martin Brasier (1947–2014): astrobiologist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2015

Sean McMahon  and
Charles Cockell
Sean McMahon*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Charles Cockell
Affiliation:
UK Centre for Astrobiology, Edinburgh, UK
*
e-mail: sean.mcmahon@yale.edu
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Abstract

How did life on Earth begin? What does the search for life in the distant past tell us about the search for life on distant planets? How should the most ancient and ambiguous putative biosignatures be critically evaluated? How did the Earth–life system evolve through the dramatic upheavals of the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary? When and why did eukaryotes begin to produce mineralized skeletons? These are among the astrobiological questions to which palaeobiologist Martin Brasier made profound contributions in a career spanning nearly half a century and tragically cut short late last year. Here, we summarize and celebrate Martin's contributions to astrobiology.

Keywords

Apex ChertMartin Brasierpaleobiology
Type
Review Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 527 - 531
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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