These unusual fossils are charming, evocative and interesting! This one is 1.7 oz and 2.8” by 1.25” by 1.3” and she is red clay-colored although she isn’t clay at all, but an agglomeration of calcites … you can see the little crystals with a loupe. She is two, gracefully curved little bowl-like lobes that looks like ancient flowers … and she shimmers in the light! What a fascinating and earthy creation!

Stromatolites are Pre-Cambrian fossils of microbiological colonies or ‘mats’, likely cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are marine bacteria found in all over the globe and are the main mechanism for carbon fixation in the oceans. Some are deep sea and others are surface, but all manage to thrive in concentrations of metallic ions that others cannot (either high or low) and some are boldly pigmented. They are found everywhere … at ocean depths, along oceanic shores and even in areas where there were once ancient oceans. In fact, many scientists postulate that the oceans were derived from the stars as icy meteors struck Earth and provided the first water and microorganisms.

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Sweet, Evocative Stromatolite Fossil