Scott et al.

Carbonaceous spherules 1

Fungus, not comet or catastrophe, accounts for carbonaceous spherules in the

Younger Dryas ‘impact layer’

Andrew C. Scott 1 , Nicholas Pinter2, Margaret E. Collinson1, Mark Hardiman3, R.

Scott Anderson4, Anthony P.R. Brain5, Selena Y. Smith6, Federica Marone7, Marco

Stampanoni7,8

[1] A claim attributes the onset of the Younger Dryas climate interval and a range of

other effects ~12,900 years ago to a comet airburst and/or impact event. One key

aspect of this claim centers on the origin of carbonaceous spherules that purportedly

formed during intense, impact-ignited wildfires. Samples from Pleistocene-Holocene

sedimentary sequences in the California Channel Islands and other sites show that

carbon spherules and elongate forms are common in samples dating to before, during,

and well after the 12,900-year time horizon, including from modern samples.

Microscopic studies show that carbon spherules have morphologies and internal

structures identical to fungal sclerotia (such as Sclerotium and Cenococcum).

Experimental charring of fungal sclerotia shows that their reflectance increases with

temperature. Reflectance measurements of modern and late Pleistocene spherules

show that the latter indicate, at most, low-intensity burning. These data cast further

doubt upon the evidence suggesting a catastrophic Younger Dryas impact event.

1
Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham,
Surrey TW20 0EX, UK 2 Department of Geology, Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, IL 62901-4324, USA 3 Department of Geography, Royal Holloway
University of London, Department of Geography, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK,
4
School of Earth Sciences & Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona
University, Box 5694 Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA 5 Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging,
King's College London, London, SE1 1UL, UK 6Museum of Paleontology and
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109,
USA 7Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen,
Switzerland,8Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, 8092
Zurich, Switzerland.
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 2

1. Introduction

[2] Central to the proposed impact event 12,900 calendar years before present (cal

BP) (Firestone et al., 2007; Kennett et al., 2008, 2009a,b) has been the suggestion of

catastrophic wildfires “ignited by an intense radiation flux associated with a cosmic

impact”(Firestone et al., 2007), fires that ranged from coastal California, across North

America, to Europe. Putative evidence of these hemisphere-spanning fires includes

“charcoal, soot, carbon spherules, and glass-like carbon, all of which suggest intense

wildfires”. The carbon spherules in the Younger Dryas (YD) deposits (Fig. 2A-C) are

described as “black, highly vesicular, subspherical-to-spherical objects … [with]

cracked and patterned surfaces, a thin rind, and honeycombed (spongy) interiors …

with no evidence of seed-like morphology or cellular plant structure” (Firestone et al.,

2007). In addition, Kennett et al. (2008, 2009a,b) identified “carbon elongates” (a new

term) which, like the spherular forms, “have (1) the appearance of melted and charred

organic matter, (2) a moderately glossy shell unlike that of charcoal, and (3) interior

vesicles that are typically a few micrometers in diameter” (Kennett et al., 2008).

[3] We studied three sedimentary sections from the Northern Channel Islands (NCI;

Fig. 1) of California: at Sauces Canyon on Santa Cruz Island and at Verde Canyon

and Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, as well as samples from modern

collections. The NCI contain two of the type sections studied in detail by the

Firestone group – Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island and Daisy Cave on San

Miguel Island – both of which reportedly contain charcoal, black carbon spherules,

nanodiamonds, and other purported fire and impact markers at the 12,900 Cal BP

horizons (Firestone et al., 2007; Kennett et al., 2008, 2009a,b). The sections in

Arlington Canyon, Verde Canyon, Sauces Canyon, and a number of additional nearby
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 3

sections that we also examined, are fluvial fill sequences deposited from the late

Pleistocene to the Holocene. We measured and described these sections, collecting

material for separation of charcoal and other organic forms as well as for radiocarbon

dating. In addition, samples of modern fungal sclerotia were assembled and

experimentally charred at 350-800oC for a range of times. Carbon spherules and other

forms from all samples were structurally characterised using reflected light

microscopy, Scanning Electron (SEM), and Transmission Electron (TEM) and some

using Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Tomographic Microscopy (SRXTM) and then

compared with the samples previously described at the YD impact horizon and with

reference materials from the literature and from comparative collections from sites

worldwide (Auxiliary Materials).

2. Results

[4] Litter and soils contain many spherical and elongate particles of biological

origin that are not seeds or wood. For example, fungal sclerotia occur commonly at

the soil-litter interface (Watanabe et al., 2007). In the USA, the fungal genus

Sclerotium, for example, has been reported associated with over 270 host genera

(Farr et al.,1989). Fungal sclerotia may vary in shape but are commonly spherical and

in the size range 200µm to 2mm (Townsend and Willetts, 1954; Willetts, 1969;

Watanabe et al., 2007). Also arthropod faecal pellets are often abundant in soils,

usually elongate but occur in the same size range depending on the animal

responsible: mites, collembola, termites, millipedes (Adams, 1984; Collinson, 1990;

Scott, 1992).

[5] Sclerotia of Sclerotium and other fungal genera (e.g. Rhizoctonia, Botrytis and

Cenococcum) have thick rinds and, depending on stage of development (Willetts,

1969; Massicotte et al., 1992), show different internal structure (Fig. 2G-J, L-N and
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 4

Auxiliary Material). A thick outer skin or rind of thick-walled cells in Sclerotium

rolfsii (Willetts, 1969) (Auxiliary Material) overlies thinner walled cortical cells

consisting of closely packed hyphae (Willetts, 1969). TEM shows that the outer rind

also consists of closely packed hyphae (Auxiliary Material). In some cases the

thinner-walled cortical cells form an irregular meshwork internally. When spheres are

subjected to 1 hour charring at 350°C some of the rind and cortical cells coalesce (Fig.

2I,J; Auxiliary Material). The uncharred surface appears as a continuous cuticle,

which may possess ridges and troughs (Willetts, 1969). However, on charring, even at

low temperatures for short periods (350°C for 5 mins), the surface becomes more

smooth and glassy in appearance, and the colour changes from deep brown to black

(Fig 2H). The thinner-walled cortical cells may appear regularly arranged externally

but form an irregular meshwork internally. With longer charring at low temperatures,

some of the cells appear to coalesce (Fig 2I,J), however at higher temperatures

(450°C) the cells thin and voids appear in the spherules (Auxilliary Material).

Sclerotia surfaces of Botrytis (Willetts, 1969; Chet, 1975) and Sclerotium show

similarities to surfaces illustrated by Kennett et al. (2009a). Chet (1975) described

sclerotia with relatively large thin-walled cortical cells where the outer surface

sometimes shows the presence of small balls. These represent closely packed hyphal

tips, which sometimes have a film over them (Willetts, 1969). This surface pattern is

similar to some spheres from Santa Cruz Island (Auxiliary Material) but is lacking on

most fossil spheres. The pattern can be seen on uncharred fungal sclerotia (Auxiliary

Material) but is lost in the charred specimens (even those charred at 350°C for 5 min)

explaining its absence in many fossils.

3. Implications of data
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 5

[6] Systematic sampling, dating, observation, microscopy and reflectance

measurements on black carbon spherules from the NCI study area and from the

Thursley Bog fire in Britain, and comparison with the reported YD spherules suggest

six key problems with the Firestone et al. (2007) and Kennett et al. (2009a,b)

interpretations.

[7] First, our results confirm that carbon spherules – as well as carbon

‘elongates’– are not unique to 12,900 cal BP “impact” event horizon in California or

elsewhere. We have found spherules (200µm-2mm diameter) from multiple horizons

in all three of our NCI stratigraphic sections (Auxiliary Material). The spherules are

not unique to a single layer but occur associated with charcoal resulting from periodic

wildfire events (Auxiliary material). Fire is an important Earth System Process

(Bowman et al., 2009) and fires may occur frequently. A global compilation of

Younger Dryas fire studies (Marlon et al., 2009) does not support a single major fire

at the 12,900 year horizon, nor do studies from Europe (van der Hammen and van

Geel, 2008). The fossil black spherules occur in our samples whose radiocarbon ages

range from 4463-24,694 cal BP (Auxiliary Material). We also found similar

carbonaceous spherules in charcoal assemblages from low-intensity modern fire sites

in southern England (Fig. 2D-F). Typically they ranged in size from 500µm to 2mm

(Fig. 2D). In section they show a distinctive rind (up to 10µm thick) and a cellular

network of thinner walled cells (Fig. 2E,F). These, and specimens from Santa Rosa

Island, bear a striking resemblance to Cenococcum and Sclerotium (Fig. 2G-J, L-N

and Auxiliary Material)

[8] Second, charring experiments on fungal sclerotia of the genus Sclerotium

show that they are destroyed completely at 800oC and become hollow at 550oC. Only

at temperatures ≤350oC do the sclerotia retain (modified) internal structure (Auxiliary

Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 6

Material). These observations are inconsistent with the claim that spherule generation

requires high-intensity or catastrophic fires as suggested by YD impact proponents.

[9] Third, when spheres are subjected to 1 hour charring at 350oC (see below),

EM shows that some of the rind and cortical cells coalesce (Auxiliary Material). At

higher temperatures (450oC), the cells thin, and voids appear in the spherules

(Auxiliary Material)) (Fig. 2L-M). In some cases the thinner-walled cortical cells

form an irregular meshwork internally. SRXTM digital sections (Fig. 2M,N) show

that internal structure varies in appearance depending on the plane of section within a

single sphere. Ultrastructural morphologies resembling those interpreted by Kennett et

al. (2009b) as nanodiamonds (Fig. 2O,P) are present in charred fungal sclerotia (Fig.

2Q,R) (Auxiliary Material). Therefore, structure in charred fungal sclerotia mirrors

that in Pleistocene spherules at mm to nm scales.

[10] Fourth, the shape of the sclerotia can vary from spherical to elongate (Willetts,

1969), and hence both the spherules and elongates described by Kennett et al.

(2009a), could represent fungal sclerotia. Alternative biological origins for different

morphologies include small galls (formed on plants or fungi) or insect fecal pellets.

Support for these possibilities comes from the radial pattern of tissue organization

(Auxiliary Material) and the hexagonal faceting (Auxiliary Material), the latter

identical to that of termite fecal pellets that are frequently found in soils and are

common coprolites in the fossil record (Adams, 1984; Collinson, 1990; Scott, 1992).

Coprolites occur commonly in many of our California samples, but from the data

published, it is not possible to know what proportion of the ‘elongates’ of Kennett et

al. (2008, 2009b) are fungal sclerotia or coprolites.

[11] Fifth, the reflectance of organic material (vascular plants and fungi) provides

quantitative data on the temperature of charring (Scott and Glasspool, 2007;

Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 7

McParland et al., 2009). We measured reflectance of fossil spherules and wood

charcoal from the California study sections and reflectance of experimentally charred

fungal sclerotia (Auxiliary Material). All fossil black carbonaceous spherules show

reflectance of <2%Ro, consistent with charring temperatures of <450oC (Auxiliary

Material). The reflectance values of the spherules are similar to those obtained from

associated charcoalified wood fragments (Auxiliary Material). Together with the

result of the charring experiments, our reflectance measurements show that the fossil

spherules are unlikely to have experienced temperatures higher than 450oC. These

temperatures are typical of, at most, low-intensity natural wildfires (McParland et al.,

2009; Scott, 2010).

[12] Finally, Kennett et al. (2008) presented 16 radiocarbon dates through the basal

5 meters of the Arlington Springs section on Santa Rosa, which we also measured,

collected, and studied in detail (Auxiliary Material). According to these authors, all

of their samples dated indistinguishably to 12,900-13,000 cal BP (Kennett et al.

(2008, their Table 4). These results are puzzling, given the fine-grained sediments

throughout this sequence and the low-energy fluvial architecture of the deposits. In

contrast, our own dating of the Arlington Canyon sequence (Auxiliary Material)

produced continuous ages from 16821 cal BP at its base up to the prominent dark

marker bed dated to 11467 cal BP, with several meters of additional (presumably

Holocene) sediments above.

4. Conclusions

[13] Firestone et al. (2007) and Kennett et al. (2008, 2009a,b) use the occurrence of

carbon spherules and ‘elongates’ and ‘glass-like carbon’ to argue for mega-fire

ignited by a catastrophic impact/airburst event at 12,900 cal BP. In reality, these

materials are ubiquitous in modern environments and ancient deposits. The carbon
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 8

spherules do not represent exclusive by-products of impact-triggered mega-fires as

previously suggested, but rather are fungal sclerotia that are common in forest litter

and soils worldwide. The so-called carbon ‘elongates’ appear to include non-

spherical forms of sclerotia and/or arthropod faecal material. Both types of material

were found at multiple levels throughout our late Pleistocene to Holocene

sedimentary sequences on the Northern Channel Islands of California, along with

examples of the ‘glass-like carbon’ (probably charred conifer resin preserved in sandy

substrates (Auxiliary Materials)). Furthermore the experimental charring and

reflectance data presented here show that preservation of sclerotia precludes high-

intensity fire and requires, at most, low-intensity burning at these sites. There is no

justification to invoke high temperature impact-ignited wildfires as the mechanism for

generating any of the materials reported in the YD deposits. The results here echo

those of other studies that either (1) have been unable to duplicate the evidence

presented in support of a YD impact (Surovell et al., 2009; Holliday and Meltzer,

2010; Paquay et al., 2009; Haynes et al., 2010) or (2) have found that the impact

proponents asserted catastrophic and extraterrestrial sources for material of terrestrial

and/or everyday origins (Kerr, 2008, 2009; Pinter and Ishman, 2008).

[14] Acknowlegements. We thank S. Gibbons, N. Holloway and Z. Jiang for technical help. This

research was supported by grants from National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation

(EAR-0746015), Royal Society of London for the purchase of ovens, Royal Holloway strategy fund,

Natural Environmental Research Council Envirosynch, and Integrated Infrastructure Initiative on

Synchrotrons and Free Electron Lasers. MH acknowledges the receipt of a NERC MSc studentship. We

thank V.Haynes and B. Van Geel for their valuable comments, A.G. Heiss for use of SEM images,

John R. Johnson for supplying a sample collected by Jim West in Arlington Canyon, P.Cannon and D.

Hawksworth for advice on fungal sclerotia and T. Jull for advice on radiocarbon ages,
Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 9

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Auxiliary Materials are available in the HTML

Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 13

Figure 1. The Northern Channel Islands (NCI) of California, showing portions of the

three main sections sampled, dated, and described in this paper. (A) Verde Canyon

section on Santa Rosa Island. (B) Sauces (a.k.a. Willows) Canyon on Santa Cruz

Island. (C) Middle Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island. Also shown on each

panel (red circle) is the approximate position of the 12,900 cal BP age horizon.

Figure 2. Forms of modern and fossil carbonaceous spherules.

A-C. SEMs of carbonaceous spherules and elongates from a Younger Dryas black

horizon, Arlington Canyon, Santa Rosa Island, California, from Kennett et al.

(2009b). A. Whole spherule. B. Internal structure of outer part of spherule. C. Internal

structure of ‘elongate’ specimen.

D.-F. Carbonaceous spherule (cf Cenococcum, Fig 2G) from charcoal assemblage

after low intensity wildfire, Thursley, Surrey, 2006. D. Light photograph of whole

spherule. E. SEM of outer part of broken spherule showing rind. F. SEM of inner part

of broken spherule.

G. Scanning Electron Micrograph of broken fungal sclerotium of Cenococcum

geophilium showing rind, Alberta Canada.

H.-J. Fungal sclerotium of Sclerotium rolfsii. H. Light photograph of whole slerotium

charred at 350oC for 5 mins. I. SEM of broken sclerotium showing thick rind. J. SEM

of mesh-like internal structure comprising fused fungal hyphae.

K. SEM of broken ‘elongate’ from Arlington Canyon, illustrated by Kennett et al.

(2009b). Specimen shows thick outer rind and vesiculate interior.

L. SEM of internal structure of charcoalified sclerotium charred at 450oC for 5min.

Note thick rind and more vesicular interior.

Scott et al. Carbonaceous spherules 14

M-N. SRXTM digital sections of sclerotium charred at 350oC for 5 min showing

different appearance depending on the plane of section.

O. TEM of carbonaceous fragment from a powdered spherule interpreted as showing

‘nanodiamonds’ from Kennett et al. (2009b). P. TEM of fragment interpreted as

lonsdailite crystal from Kennett et al. (2009b).

Q,R. TEM of thin sections through charred fungal sclerotium hyphal wall. Q. dark

areas similar to those shown in 2O. R. Organised area similar to that shown in 2P.