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[7] [8] Different styles of stromatolite lamination have been described, [9] [10] which can be studied through microscopic and mathematical methods. [10] A stromatolite may grow to a meter or more. [11] [12] Fossilized stromatolites provide important records of some of the
Ancient giant stromatolites used to be widespread in Earth’s Precambrian era, which encompasses the early time span of around 4.6 billion to 541 million years ago, but now they are sparsely ...
The Gunflint Chert is composed of biogenic stromatolites. [3] At the time of its discovery in the 1950s, it was the earliest form of life discovered and described in scientific literature, as well as the earliest evidence for photosynthesis. [4] The black layers in the sequence contain microfossils that are 1.9 to 2.3 billion years in age.
The earliest direct evidence of life are stromatolites found in 3.48 billion-year-old chert in the Dresser formation of the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. [4] Several features in these fossils are difficult to explain with abiotic processes, for example, the thickening of laminae over flexure crests that is expected from more sunlight. [57]
The microbes are photosynthetic; thus stromatolites represent shallow water environments in the fossil record due to their necessity to exist in the photic zone of water bodies. Stromatolites typically consist of filamentous microfossils. [17] The oldest stromatolites have been dated to approximately 3.5 billion years old. [18]
This is a list of all extinct cyanobacteria genera that formed stromatolites. Collenia; Species Time period Location †C. frequens: Late Proterozoic: Australia
Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. The earliest identifiable fossils consist of stromatolites, which are microbial mats formed in shallow water by cyanobacteria. The earliest stromatolites are found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia.
Awramik is known for his long standing expertise on stromatolites. His 1971 discovery of a link between a loss in stromatolitic diversity and the appearance of the first metazoans was published in Science. [4] In 1974, he and Lynn Margulis gave an often-used definition of "stromatolite". [5]