The formation was described almost three decades ago as a partly evaporitic, shallow-water succession containing conical structures of possible microbial origin (stromatolites) 1,2. However ...

Stromatolites, the first signs of life, are present in the shallow water. (Graphic: Tim Bertelink, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org) The present-day formation of continental crust can be ...

But when you look back 3.45 billion years, to the early Archean period of geologic history, things aren't quite so simple. "Because stromatolites from this period of time have been around longer ...

But when you look back 3.45 billion years, to the early Archean period of geologic history, things aren't quite so simple. "Because stromatolites from this period of time have been around longer ...

Were you to visit it during Archean times, you wouldn’t last long: The atmosphere of the planet then was a mix of gasses like carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia, among others, that would have been ...

Scientists have discovered a previously hidden ecosystem with an expansive system of lagoons in the salt plains of Puna de Atacama, an arid plateau in Argentina — with giant stromatolites that ...

Stromatolites are layered carbonate structures ... increasing atmospheric oxygen around 2.2 billion years ago during the Archean era. Understanding their formation is significant for both ...

“It was like their own paleo-Archean parade, and they had all their ... as you would expect for stromatolites, random parts of the cones should be cut through. So Allwood and her team visited ...

That oxygen initially wiped out stromatolites’ competition, enabling their prominence in the Archean and early Proterozoic environment. However, as more life forms adapted their metabolism to an ...