Favorite Ancient/Prehistoric Organism Thread

[AnthropocenianAge (AnthropocenianAge Arthropleura wants to give you a hug!)]

I am surprise that a thread with this name does not exist yet, considering people bring up ancient/prehistoric organisms all the time. This includes ancient organisms from all clades/Kingdoms of Life.

You already know one of my favorite ancient organisms ^[1], so I will go with another favorite organism - Stromatolites! Without them, we would not have oxygen in the atmosphere, and they still exist in some places after billions of years!

By Paul Harrison - Photograph taken by Paul Harrison (Reading, UK) using a Sony CyberShot DSC-H1 digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0, File:Stromatolites in Sharkbay.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

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1. just look at my profile and name tags ↩︎

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Weren’t stromatolytes the structures made by cyanobacteria? Like how we have fossil footprints?

[AnthropocenianAge (AnthropocenianAge Arthropleura wants to give you a hug!)]

Stromatolytes are made of three layers of bacteria. Cyanobacteria make up the top layer, while facultative aerobes make up the buffer brown layer that shield the anaerobic purple sulfur bacteria below. The by-product at the bottom of the mat, for stromatolites, is basically rock, which is why these structures exist. At least, this is what I remember about them.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Yeah. So as said, they aren’t the fossils of cyanobacteria themselves, mote like foorprints of theirs.

Have you heard of the francevillean biota?

[AnthropocenianAge (AnthropocenianAge Arthropleura wants to give you a hug!)]

Yup. Although, scientists aren’t sure if it is actual life, or simple due to abiotic, geological processes.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Maybe they could’ve originated from both?

[AnthropocenianAge (AnthropocenianAge Arthropleura wants to give you a hug!)]

Your guess is as good as theirs.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Through the conditions where the biota ended do line up with a possibly life-thwarting event (pretty sure a major glaciation event and/or oxygen level drop).