Reading Earth's oldest diaries
Robot detectives on the red planet
Decoding light from distant worlds
YOUR GOAL
Master of Fossilized whispers and cosmic gas
007skaty Ancient rock structures called stromatolites helped shape Earth's atmosphere.
007skaty Stromatolite Biosignatures
Reading Earth's oldest diaries now, (oh-oh, in the stone!) Where ancient life left its signature, (yeah, they show!)
007skaty Heat-loving microbes produce vivid carotenoid pigments for sun protection, forming distinct color bands that serve as recognizable biosignatures.
007skaty Warm light illuminates the ancient, dark rock layers of Greenland's Isua Greenstone Belt.
007skaty Search glowing shale fossils to discover how biosignatures reveal ancient life.
Ancient oxygen makers: Cyanobacteria in stromatolites pumped so much oxygen into Earth's atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago that they caused a global ice age.
What are steranes, found in 2.7-billion-year-old Australian shales, considered chemical fossils of?
Which microscopic organisms are primarily responsible for building ancient stromatolite rocks?
What chemical element's isotopes are analyzed in Greenland's rocks to find early biological activity?
Why do heat-loving microbes in Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring produce bright orange and yellow colors?
What microscopic features found in 3.4-billion-year-old South African basalt suggest ancient microbial life?