What seem to endure rocks submerged inward the hyper-saline H2O of Hamelin Pool at the base of operations of Shark Bay inward the Gascoyne portion of Western Commonwealth of Australia , are non quite rocks. They are living things called stromatolites , created past times tiny , single-celled microbes called cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) , which are some of the earliest forms of life on earth.
Stromatolites are formed past times the increment of layers upon layers of cyanobacteria in addition to sediments that the microbes trap amongst their viscid mucus layer. These fine particles are cemented together amongst calcium carbonate produced past times the bacteria , thereby edifice upwards the stromatolite structures. While they don’t seem to endure living , each construction is genuinely a real ho-hum growing microbial colony that may grow less than 1mm per year.
Photo credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner/Flickr
Cyanobacteria appeared on globe some 3.5 billion years agone when the globe was all the same immature in addition to in that location was niggling to no oxygen inward the atmosphere. Through photosynthesis these organisms gradually changed the Earth's atmosphere from a carbon dioxide-rich mixture to an oxygen-rich atmosphere , paving the agency for to a greater extent than complex , oxygen-dependent life forms to develop. Eventually , these life-giving cyanobacteria savage victims to animals that ate cyanobacteria in addition to algae , greatly reducing their abundance in addition to diversity.
While fossilized stromatolites are constitute inward lot of places about the basis , Hamelin Pool is i of the few places where living marine stromatolites tin endure found. Most animals , which feed on the bacteria in addition to algae of which stromatolites are composed , cannot tolerate the extreme salinity of Hamelin Pool. As a number stromatolites tin grow hither undisturbed. Some of these structures are upwards to 1.5 meters high in addition to conduct maintain taken thousands of years to grow. In the Marble Bar surface area of Western Commonwealth of Australia in that location are fossil stromatolites to a greater extent than or less l meters high in addition to thirty meters diameter. These are estimated to endure over 3 billion years old.
The presence of stromatolites were a major element inward Shark Bay beingness declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Photo credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner/Flickr
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Photo credit: Sarah Huffman/Flickr
Photo credit: Sarah Huffman/Flickr
Sources: www.sharkbay.org.au / Wikipedia / www.sharkbaywa.com.au