Are Stromatolites the Most Ancient Skeletal Organisms?
Stromatolites have an ancient and contradictory research history. Initially, they were classified as non-organic fossils and either concretions or layered limestones. Over time, their organic nature was established, but details regarding the stromatolite-
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Joachim Reitner Gernot Arp
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Nadia-Vale´rie Que´ric
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Advances in Stromatolite Geobiology
Prof. Dr. Joachim Reitner Universita¨t Go¨ttingen Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Abt. Geobiologie Goldschmidtstr. 3 37077 Go¨ttingen Germany [email protected]
Dr. Nadia-Vale´rie Que´ric Universita¨t Go¨ttingen Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Abt. Geobiologie Goldschmidtstr. 3 37077 Go¨ttingen Germany [email protected]
Dr. Gernot Arp Universita¨t Go¨ttingen Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Abt. Geobiologie Goldschmidtstr. 3 37077 Go¨ttingen Germany [email protected]
ISSN 0930-0317 ISBN 978-3-642-10414-5 e-ISBN 978-3-642-10415-2 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-10415-2 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010937235 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: SPi Publisher Services Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Stromatolites are the most intriguing geobiological structures of the entire history of the earth since the early beginning of the fossil record in the Archaean. Traditionally, stromatolites and related microbial sediments are interpreted as biosedimentological remains of biofilms and microbial mats. Stromatolites are important environmental and evolutionary archives that give us plenty of information about ancient habitats, biodiversity, evolution of complex benthic biosystems, and generally of Global Change. However, many aspects of the formation, biology, and geobiology of these structures are still cryptic and poorly understood. The Geobiology Group in Go¨ttingen has successfully been granted a large international research project to solve many of these open questions. Therefore, we organised a symposium under the auspices of the DFG-Research Unit FOR 571 “Geobiology of Organo- and Biofilms”: Coupling Geosphere and Biosphere via Microbial Processes and the Courant Research Centre Geobiology, which is part of the German Federal Excellence Initiative. The symposium was dedicated to Ernst Louis Kalkowsky (1851–1938), who has introduced the terms “Stromatolith” and “Oolith” to the earth science community in
