Life in freshwater lakes
Stromatolites grow in Australian lakes 2.72 billion years ago — microbial life well away from the sea.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 million years
- Era
- Neoarchean, Archean
The Tumbiana Formation preserves a giant lake system with stromatolites whose shapes vary with wave energy across the shoreline, plus clusters of organic globules within their laminae. Being lacustrine rather than marine, they show microbial communities had colonised continental freshwater by this point. They are among the best-preserved Archean stromatolites anywhere.