Layered sedimentary structure formed by the growth of bacteria or algae
Fossilized stromatolite in Strelley Pool chert, about 3.4 billion years old,[1] from Pilbara Craton, Western AustraliaModern stromatolites in Shark Bay, Western Australia
Stromatolites (/stroʊˈmætəˌlaɪts,strə-/stroh-MAT-ə-lytes, strə-)[2][3] or stromatoliths (from Ancient Greek στρῶμα (strôma), GEN στρώματος (strṓmatos) 'layer, stratum', and λίθος (líthos) 'rock')[4] are layered sedimentary formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). These microorganisms produce adhesive compounds that cement sand and other rocky materials to form mineral "microbial mats". In turn, these mats build up layer by layer, growing gradually over time.[5][6]
This process generates the characteristic lamination of stromatolites, a feature that is hard to interpret, in terms of its temporal and environmental significance.[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 most ancient life. As of the Holocene, living forms are rare.
^Duda, J-P.; Van Kranendonk, M.J.; Thiel, V.; Ionescu, D.; Strauss, H.; Schäfer, N.; Reitner, J. (2016). "A Rare Glimpse of Paleoarchean Life: Geobiology of an Exceptionally Preserved Microbial Mat Facies from the 3.4 Ga Strelley Pool Formation, Western Australia". PLOS One. 11 (1): e0147629. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147629D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147629. PMC 4726515. PMID 26807732.
^"stromatolite". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
^"stromatolite". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020.
^στρῶμα, λίθος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
^Winner, Cherie (15 November 2013). "What Doomed the Stromatolites?". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
^"Two-ton, 500 Million-year-old Fossil Of Stromatolite Discovered In Virginia, U.S." 8 July 2008.
^Seong-Joo, Lee; Browne, Kathleen M.; Golubic, Stjepko (2000), Riding, Robert E.; Awramik, Stanley M. (eds.), "On Stromatolite Lamination", Microbial Sediments, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 16–24, doi:10.1007/978-3-662-04036-2_3, ISBN 978-3-642-08275-7, retrieved 9 February 2024
^Arenas, Concha; Jones, Brian (October 2017). Hollis, Cathy (ed.). "Temporal and environmental significance of microbial lamination: Insights from Recent fluvial stromatolites in the River Piedra, Spain". Sedimentology. 64 (6): 1597–1629. doi:10.1111/sed.12365. ISSN 0037-0746.
^Monty, C.L.V. (1976), "Chapter 5.1 The Origin and Development of Cryptalgal Fabrics", Developments in Sedimentology, vol. 20, Elsevier, pp. 193–249, doi:10.1016/s0070-4571(08)71137-3, ISBN 978-0-444-41376-5, retrieved 9 February 2024
^ abSuarez-Gonzalez, Pablo; Quijada, I. Emma; Benito, M. Isabel; Mas, Ramón; Merinero, Raúl; Riding, Robert (March 2014). "Origin and significance of lamination in Lower Cretaceous stromatolites and proposal for a quantitative approach". Sedimentary Geology. 300: 11–27. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2013.11.003.
^"Stromatolites". Indiana University Bloomington. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Riding, R. (2007). "The term stromatolite: towards an essential definition". Lethaia. 32 (4): 321–30. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1999.tb00550.x. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015.
Lichen stromatolites are laminar calcretes that are proposed as being formed by a sequence of repetitions of induration followed by lichen colonization...
Bhojunda Stromatolite Park is located near Bhojunda village which is about 6 km south-west of Chittaurgarh city in Rajasthan, India. It is spread across...
cyanobacteria. Stromatolites provide some of the most ancient fossil records of life on Earth, dating back more than 3.5 billion years ago. Stromatolites were much...
Much of the fossilized stromatolites of the world can be found in Western Australia. There, some of the oldest stromatolites have been found, some dating...
This is a list of all extinct cyanobacteria genera that formed stromatolites. "Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales". Proceedings of...
laminations between carbonates, claystones and evaporates. At its base is a stromatolite bed, marking its base. Below the Guelph is the Eramosa Formation. This...
impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites, which are early oxygen-producing forms of life from billions of years...
evolution. Around the same time, the layered mats of microorganisms called stromatolites decreased in diversity, perhaps due to grazing by newly evolved animals...
Supracrustal Belt in Greenland. The earliest direct known life on land may be stromatolites which have been found in 3.480-billion-year-old geyserite uncovered...
known life, mostly represented by shallow-water microbial mats called stromatolites, started in the Archean and remained simple prokaryotes (archaea and...
reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples of living marine stromatolites in the world, monuments to life on Earth over 3,500 million years BP...
and most diverse seagrass beds in the world. However, it is for its stromatolites (colonies of microbial mats that form hard, dome-shaped deposits which...
Inzeria is a genus of fossil stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria from the late Riphean stage of the Neoproterozoic era. There are currently 9 accepted species...
Conophyton is a genus of stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria from the Neoproterozoic era. Fossils have been found in many countries, including Australia...
geotourism. Buxa Formation of Mamley (also called Mamley Stromatolite Park) in Mamley, the stromatolite bearing Dolomite Limestones has been declared national...
cyanobacteria. Thrombolites have a clotted structure without the laminae of stromatolites. Each clot within a thrombolite mound is a separate cyanobacterial colony...
Pilbaria is a genus of fossil stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria from the Paleoproterozoic era 2.3 to 1.7 billion years ago. It is named after the Pilbara...
evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, but they still exist today. Stromatolites, for instance, are microbial mounds with a laminated internal structure...
Kulparia is a genus of fossil stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria from the late Neoproterozoic era. It is named after the town of Kulpara in South Australia...
Geological Society of America. Born in New England, he first studied stromatolites as a graduate student under famed paleobotanist Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn...
Site Official name Vredefort Dome Includes Vredefort Dome core area The stromatolite/basal fault plane site The chocolate tablet breccia site The pseudotachylite...
oldest surface rocks, including the ancient fossilised remains known as stromatolites and rocks such as granites that are more than three billion years old...
environments, marine and not. The best age for stromatolites was from 2800 Ma to 1000 Ma where stromatolites were the main constituents of carbonate platforms...
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