Stromatolites or stromatoliths are layered sedimentary formations that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota. These m
Fossilized stromatolite in Strelley Pool chert, about 3.4 billion years old, from Pilbara Craton, Western Australia
Modern stromatolites in Shark Bay, Western Australia
Paleoproterozoic oncoids from the Franceville Basin, Gabon, Central Africa. Oncoids are unfixed stromatolites ranging in size from a few millimeters to a few centimeters
Fossilized stromatolites, about 425 million years old, in the Soeginina Beds (Paadla Formation, Ludlow, Silurian) near Kübassaare, Estonia
The earliest known life forms on Earth may be as old as 4.1 billion years according to biologically fractionated graphite inside a single zircon grain in the Jack Hills range of Australia. The earlies
Stromatolite
…those in younger stromatolites that show strong indications of biological origin. Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of the first forms of life on Earth. They peaked about 1.25 billion years ago (Ga) and subsequently declined in abundance and diversity, so that by the start of the Cambrian they…
Evidence of possibly the oldest forms of life on Earth has been found in hydrothermal vent precipitates.
Zircons in metaconglomerates from the Jack Hills in Australia show carbon isotopic evidence for early life.
Stromatolite fossil showing convex-up structures.
Archaea (prokaryotic microbes) were first found in extreme environments, such as hydrothermal vents.