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Exotic amino acids across the K/T boundary – cometary origin and relevance for species extinction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2007

Max K. Wallis
Max K. Wallis
Affiliation:
Cardiff University, Centre for Astrobiology, 2 North Road, Cardiff CF10 2DY, Wales, UK e-mail: wallismk@cardiff.ac.uk
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Abstract

High levels of an exotic amino acid (Aib) and enhanced levels of iridium are evident in sediments pre-dating the Chicxulub impact by several tens of millennia. The source is thought to be debris from the break-up of a giant comet or trans-Neptunian body, a large fragment of which was the 10 km sized impactor that caused the famous iridium spike identified with the K/T boundary. In this paper it is argued that the Aib is not extra-terrestrial but the indicator of exotic pathogenic microfungi that flourished through this era. Its abundance implies a significant role for the fungi in the ecology, in species extinction and in driving evolution as the Tertiary period got underway. Microfungi containing the complex of genes that underlie the synthesis of Aib peptides flourished early on in the K/T transition and attacked species – including dinosaurs – that lacked counter immune mechanisms. Species (including mammals) that possessed or developed effective defence mechanisms won through in the early Tertiary-period flowering of new species. The genetic coding for Aib peptide synthesis might have evolved by natural selection. However, the coincidence in the boundary record between Aib peptides and the rise of iridium is indicative of the Aib blueprint arriving from space, in some carrier-organism or in microfungi themselves.

Keywords

Aibcarbonaceous chondriteChicxulubcosmic genesK/T boundarymass extinctionMurchisonpeptaibols
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 303 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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