Odd geometry of bacteria may provide new way to study Earth's oldest fossils
Sunday, May 23, 2010 - 00:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Deciphering the few clues about ancient bacterial life that are seen in these poorly preserved rocks has been difficult, but researchers may have found a way to glean new information from the fossils. Specifically, they have linked the even spacing between the thousands of tiny cones that dot the surfaces of stromatolite-forming microbial mats -- a pattern that also appears in cross-sectional slices of stromatolites that are 2.8 billion years old -- to photosynthesis.