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Archaean and Proterozoic Stromatolites

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Calcareous Algae and Stromatolites

Abstract

The approximately 3400-million-year history of the Archaean and Proterozoic Eons is rich in the fossil remains of organosedimentary structures called stromatolites, built primarily by cyanobacteria. Stromatolites first appear 3500 Ma ago and argue well for the presence and therefore great antiquity of cyanobacteria. The presence of cyanobacteria in such ancient rocks indicates that the evolution of the major prokaryotic phyla had occurred by Early Archaean time.

Although rare in the Archaean and first 300 million years of the Proterozoic, stromatolites undergo diversification and increase in abundance in the late Early Proterozoic due, in large part, to the oxygenation of the atmosphere-hydrosphere system, permitting cyanobacteria to disperse, colonize, and thrive in shallow continental shelf-like environments produced during earlier and contemporaneous periods ofcratonization. A second diversification occurred in the Early to Middle Riphean (approximately 1500 to 1200 Ma ago), and might in some way be due to the appearance of eukaryotes. A sharp drop in stromatolite diversity occurs during the Vendian (675 to 570 Ma ago) and is probably due to the activity of metazoans. Two diversity plateaus occur, one separates the two diversifications and the other occurs after the last diversification and before the Vendian decline.

Stromatolites are the products of the complex interactions of microbial, sedimentary, and environmental factors. While stromatolites are not well understood from a biogeological per-spective, they do provide valuable evidence for ancient life, they are useful for biostratigraphy and palaeoecology, and their distributional and diversity patterns provide insight into the first 3 billion years of the history of life on this planet.

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Author notes

  1. S. M. Awramik

    Present address: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Western Australia, 6000, Perth, Francis Street, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Preston Cloud Research Laboratory, University of California, CA, 93106, Santa Barbara, USA

    S. M. Awramik

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wales College of Cardiff, CF1 3YE, Cardiff, UK

    Robert Riding

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Awramik, S.M. (1991). Archaean and Proterozoic Stromatolites. In: Riding, R. (eds) Calcareous Algae and Stromatolites. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-52335-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-52335-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-52337-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-52335-9

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