^1,2David A. Kring,³Charles S. Cockell
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.70126]
¹Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas, USA
²Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
³UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Postimpact recovery and evolution in response to climate changes produced amodern ecosystem at Meteor Crater dominated by a grassland and woodland of pi~non andjuniper, which has been used to evaluate floral and megafaunal consequences of impactcratering during the Phanerozoic Eon of complex life. Here, we describe a postimpactendolithic community that illustrates a potential habitat for micro-ecosystems aroundimpact craters in both Proterozoic and Phanerozoic times. Phototrophs withinimpact-ejected carbonate are dominated by eukaryotic green algae that affiliate withTrebouxiophycaea (Trebouxia and Stichococcus spp.). Eukaryotic fungi are dominated byAscomycota, including Hydropisphaera, Trichoderma, Acremonium, and Stanjemonium spp.,and representatives of Basidiomycota including Agaricomycetes and Clitopilus spp. Theprokaryotic community is dominated by Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, the latterdominated by Alphaproteobacteria. At a genus level, the bacterial community containstypical representatives of soil and rock environments, including Promicromonospora,Lentzea, Streptomyces, Kribella, Rubrobacter, Deinococcus, Sphingomonas, Belnapia, andMethylobacterium spp. These data show that impact crater rocks host taxonomically diversecommunities potentially involved in carbon cycling in the early stages of colonization.