Advances in Earth Science ›› 2020, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (1): 70-78. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2020.001
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Wei Zhang( )
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Wei Zhang. Important Development and Significance of Modern Carbonate Stromatolites[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2020, 35(1): 70-78.
Stromatolite, as the representative of recorder in the early life history of the Earth, has been traced back from 3.5 billion years to 3.7 billion years ago. Stromatolites do provide indirect evidence for the existence of early life on the Earth, especially the composition of modern carbonate stromatolites, which further proves that stromatolites are calcified structures of cyanobacterial mats. Among the modern carbonate stromatolites, the following examples have been studied for a long time: Coarse stromatolites on the platform of Bahamas, fine stromatolites in the ultra-salinity environment of Australia and ultra-salinity lagoon of southeastern Brazil. Based on the predecessors' research results, by tracing the growth mechanism of modern carbonate stromatolites and the complex microbial activities and deposition processes, the formation of stromatolites in the middle of the Zhangxia Formation of Cambrian in the Huolianzhai section of Benxi is obviously different from that of modern carbonate stromatolites, which indicates that the sedimentary model of modern stromatolites cannot be fully applied in the ancient stromatolites. Therefore, the comparison between modern carbonate stromatolites and ancient stromatolites provides a rich way to further understand the construction of Cambrian stromatolites and microbial carbonate factory.