Stromatolites, literally meaning layered rock, it is one of the oldest life forms on this planet! Stromatolites can be traced back to 3.5 billion years and we saw it while snorkeling/strolling the beaches! For the readers who are thinking ‘so what you saw a rock, … please keep reading, you don’t get it yet.

Firstly, stromatolites, what is it? They are “sedimentary structures produced by the sediment trapping, binding, and precipitating activity of phototrophic microbes” (including cyanobacteria/blue-green algae). These words are by someone far more intelligent than I in anything related to science. These underwater structures are not actually considered coral because unlike coral, they are completely organism based. Stromatolites are living fossils, they provide a record of Earths environmental change throughout history (similar to rings on a tree trunk) and an inside look as to what the bottom of oceans looked like billions of years ago around the preCambrian period. For anyone else who has forgotten their middle school geology class…. preCambrian is a SUPEReon! Yeah. sounds cool, right? Pre-Cambrian is subdivided by other eons, of which, also not much is known.  It is day 1 of Earth, spanning to 4.6 billion years ago; this is the largest amount of time on Earth.

The most prominent locations to find or study stromatolites are in the Bahamas or Sharks Bay, Australia. In the Bahamas, it is easily found in Lee Stocking & Highborne Cay. Happy searchings and as always, respect the marine life around you. All too often I see tourists tromping around on coral with fins and dinghies and anchors.