Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A usually rounded or columnar sedimentary structure consisting of alternating layers of carbonate or silicate sediment and fossilized microbial mats, produced over geologic time by the trapping, binding, or precipitating of minerals by groups of microorganisms, primarily cyanobacteria.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology A laminated, columnar, rock-like structure built over geologic time by microorganisms such as cyanobacteria.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin strōma, strōmat-, covering; see stroma + –lite.]

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Examples

  • But, consider this: a stromatolite is a large colony of single-celled organisms communicating with one another.

    Another definition of ID - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • ANDREW KNOLL, PALEONTOLOGIST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: What you see here, is something called a stromatolite, and if you look at it carefully, you'll see that ...

    CNN Transcript Aug 12, 2001 2001

  • The patch, called a stromatolite, formed millions of years ago when that section of land was under water.

    MPNnow Home RSS 2008

  • This, in turn, set the stage for the origin of eukaryotes (from the very tightly packed denizens of the stromatolite mats), which eventually set the stage for multicellularity.

    Ancient Predator Revealed! 2009

  • Most geologists I know would call the entire rock a “stromatolite”, rather than trying to point to any particular part of the rock.

    Stromatolites - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • In a rock shop, I was fortunate enough to discover a 7 diameter stromatolite sphere, reasonably priced.

    Stromatolites - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • Pseudocolumnar and mound-shaped stromatolites, or stromatoloids, are known from five locations, with filamentous and pillar-shaped microfossils detected from a stromatolite (or stromatoloid) in the lower part of the Snowslip Formation (Horodyski, 1977, 1983a, 1985a, 1993a,b).

    Glacier National Park Geology & Paleontology: Part 5 - Snowslip & Shepard ReBecca Foster 2008

  • Horodyski, R.J., 1977, Environmental influences on columnar stromatolite branching patterns: Examples from the Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, Glacier National Park, Montana: Journal of Paleontology, v. 51, p.

    Glacier National Park Geology & Paleontology: Part 2 - Prichard and Altyn ReBecca Foster 2008

  • Baicalia is a branching columnar stromatolite forming in subtidal areas, where C. columnaris is a highly elongated, unbranched, columnar stromatolite living in quiet waters below the tidal zone.

    Archive 2008-08-01 ReBecca Foster 2008

  • Horodyski, R.J., 1977, Environmental influences on columnar stromatolite branching patterns: Examples from the Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, Glacier National Park, Montana: Journal of Paleontology, v. 51, p.

    Glacier National Park Geology & Paleontology: Part 5 - Snowslip & Shepard ReBecca Foster 2008

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