Stromatolites: Origin of life

Stromatolites
What? How? Where? When? Why? Significance?

What are Stromatolites?

Stromatolites
Laminated organo-sedimentary structures

Although Earths oldest fossils (~ 3 bya) Present in modern day environments

eg. Shark Bay Australia

How are Stromatolites Formed?

By trapping, binding, and/or precipitation of minerals by microorganisms (photosynthetic microbial mats)

What are Cyanobacterias?

Photosynthetic microbial mats Cyanobacteria (bluegreen bacteria

Stromatolite Charachteristics
Form colonies and reefs Form banded domes of sediments Thrive in warm waters

Outcrop of a stromatolite reef from 1.6-billion year old Proterozoic carbonate in the Wopmay orogen. These reefs were formed by colonies of photosynthetic blue-green algae, cyanobacteria and represent some of the first life forms on earth.

Where are they found?

Being Photosynthetic
Ancient stromatolites
Warm aquatic environments with photic depths (10200 m) Archean & Proterozoic rocks (~ for 2 by)

Present Day
Hypersaline environments at Shark Bay, Australia Geothermal pools in yellowstone park, USA

When?

Why?

Why?
Precambrian Only Life forms of prokaryotes (single celled organisms) = nobody to graze on them!!! Diversified in Proterozoic Paleozoic to Cenozoic Declined Evolution of grazing metazoan Recent Thrive in extreme conditions E.g. Hypersaline

Significance
Pumped enough O2 in atmosphere by Neoproterozoic Caused Cambrian Explosion

We owe our Existance to stromatolites!!

Remember

Warrawoona: 3460 m.y. old stromatolites

Sharks Bay: Recent stromatolites

Precambrian Stromatolites

Precambrian stromatolites

Remember: stromatolitic limestones/dolomites are shallow-water sediments!

Columnar Stromatolites from Proterozoic Lohar Dolomite, Dhar Forest Inlier, Vindhyan Basin, India

Domal stromatolites Campbellrand dolomite, South Africa (2550 m.y. old)

Recent Stromatolites

Hamlin Pool. Shark Bay, Australia

Bahamian stromatolites, USA

cyano bacteria (prokaryotes) from Yellowstone, USA

Reference Material
Stromatolites 1976. (Developments in Sedimentology), 250 p. Joachim Reitner, Nadia-Valrie Quric , Gernot Arp, 2010. Advances in Stromatolite Geobiology (Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences), 571 p. Vinod Tewari, Joseph Seckbach, 2011. STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments (Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/proterolife.html http://www.sharkbay.org/Stromatolitesfactsheet.aspx http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/Stromatolites.htm http://www.wmnh.com/wmel0000.htm http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/sedimentary/images/stromatoli te.html