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Cyanobacteria are found almost everywhere. Sea spray containing marine microorganisms, including cyanobacteria, can be swept high into the atmosphere where they become aeroplankton, and can travel the globe before falling back to earth. [22] Cyanobacteria are a very large and diverse phylum of photosynthetic prokaryotes. [23]
The Warrawoona Group is a geological unit in Western Australia containing putative fossils of cyanobacteria cells. Dated 3.465 Ga, these microstructures, found in Archean chert, are considered to be the oldest known geological record of life on Earth. [1] [2] [3]
The cyanobacteria live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained by the calcium-rich dripping water, which allows them to grow toward the two open ends of the cave which provide light. [ 56 ] Stromatolites composed of calcite have been found in both the Blue Lake in the dormant volcano, Mount Gambier and at least eight cenote lakes ...
The stromatolites found today are almost all carbonate rocks (made of limestone), but these structures are mostly composed of the minerals gypsum and halite (rock salt), Hynek said.
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]
Cyanobacteria found in sedimentary rocks indicate that bacterial life began on Earth during the Precambrian age. Fossilized cyanobacteria are commonly found in rocks that date back to Mesoproterozoic. [1] Cyanobacteria are photoautotrophs in nature; they convert carbon dioxide and sunlight into food and energy via photosynthesis.
In the rare instances that cyanobacteria are found in the fossil record, their presence is usually the subject of much controversy, for their simple form is difficult to distinguish from inorganic structures such as bubbles. However, bona fide cyanobacteria are preserved in the Rhynie chert.
Fossil Thrombolites at Lake Walyungup Thrombolites (from Ancient Greek θρόμβος thrómbos meaning " clot " and λῐ́θος líthos meaning " stone ") are clotted accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding, and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms of microorganisms , especially cyanobacteria .