Western Australia, stromatolites

Plate IB, Outcrop cross-section of 1,9 Ga stromatolites exposed in Duck Creek Gorge, Western Australia, Stromatolites nucleate as isolated individuals then grow upward and laterally, bridging to adjacent individuals to form massive reefs. Note new stromatolite growing on a substrate of old stromatolites in upper right. Cross-sections show same bulbous, top-heavy form seen at Shark Bay. Hammer handle 25 cm in length (photo by author),... 

Awramik, S.M., Schopf, J.W., Walter, M.R. (1988). Carbonaceous filaments from North Pole, Western Australia. Are they fossil bacteria or ancient stromatolites A discussion. Pre-Cambrian Research, 39, 303-309. 

Buick R., Dunlop J. S. R., and Groves D. I. (1981) Stromatolite recognition in ancient rocks an appraisal of irregularly laminated structures in an Early Archean chert-barite unit from North Pole, Western Australia. Alcheringa 5, 161-181. 

Walter, M.R., Goode, A.D.T. and Hall, W.D.M., 1976. Microfossils from a newly discovered Precambrian stromatolitic iron formation in Western Australia. Nature, 261 221—223. 

When did LUCA give rise to her diverse offspring Cells resembling modern prokaryotes date back 3.5 billion years, to the stromatolites in south-western Australia, as described in Chapter 3. The first signs of eukaryotic cells, the biomarkers of membrane sterols, date to about 2.7 billion years ago. The first unequivocal eukaryotic fossils are found... 

Figure 1-15. Trendall Pilbara stromatolite, Western Australia, 3800 Mya Raman spectroscopic evidence for protective biochemicals, carotene and porphyrin, produced in a protected niche...

Walter, M. R., R. Buick, and J. S. R. Dunlop (1980). Stromatolites 3400-3500 Myr old from the North Pole area, Western Australia. Nature 284, 443-445. 

Plate 14JC. Outcrop cross-section of2.7Ga stromatolites exposed near Redmont, Western Australia. See Plate IB caption. Hammer handle 35 cm in length (photo by author). 

Ga (Schopf 1992), but these early Archean occurrences are controversial (Buick 1991). Conical and branched pseudocolumnar stromatolites occurring in 3.46 Ga carbonates and silicified carbonates of the Warrawoona Group, Western Australia were recently described (Hofman et al. 1999). Hoffman et al. concluded that microorganisms were indeed involved in the accretion of these stromatolites. They also surmised that microbial phototaxis might have played a role in shaping them, but concluded that such evidence for the role of photosynthetic biota is not yet definitive. 

Hofman HJ, Grey K, Hickman AH, Thorpe RI (1999) Origin of 3.45 Ga coniform stromatolites in Warrawoona Group, Western Australia. Geol Soc Am Bull 111 1256-1262 Holland HD (1984) The Chemical Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ... 

Coshell, L., M. R. Rosen K. J. McNamara, 1998. Hydromagnesite replacement of biomineralized aragonite in a new location of Holocene stromatolites. Lake Walyungup, Western Australia. Sedimentology 45 1005-1018. 

Mediterranean Sea the cyanobacterial stromatolits of Western Australia) that does not necessarily mean that their individual cells were immortalized (see in the text) or are they living in a biological entity free of senescence, but different from malignant transformation (Rachel Sussman The Oldest Living Things in the World , University of Chicago Press, 2014). 

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