Molecular approaches to studying living stromatolites

Abstract

The presence of stromatolites dates back to some 3.5-3.8 billion years in earth's history, a time period that witnessed the appearance of the first forms of life (Schopf 2006). The microbial communities that constituted these complex structures played a significant role in the global biogeochemical cycles and sedimentation (Dupraz and Visscher 2005). © 2011 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.