US DOLLAR
EURO
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR
CANADIAN DOLLAR
POUND STERLING
Product Description
Stromatolites are the FIRST evidence we have for life on Earth. When space exploration seeks life on other planets such as Mars, the specific evidence they are looking for are the presence of fossil stromatolites - traces of prehistoric bacteria colonies. Stromatolite fossils should be the foundation of any fossil display or collection and yet, they are often absent and their importance overlooked despite their enormous scientific importance in the history of all life.
The Late Carboniferous to Early Permian transitional stromatolites from the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany are extremely rare, lying at the oldest layer colonies of the Permian. This is the FIRST AND ONLY time we have ever been fortunate to acquire a large portion of this layer that is covered with these small colonies! This specimen is substantial portion of the fossil-bearing layer that was extracted in pieces and re-assembled and fully prepared by us, in our on-site lab facility. It is truly a MUSEUM-CLASS rare specimen of the late Carboniferous, a layer of the Altenglaner Formation lying beneath the first layers of the Permian. All the small mini-colonies are completely fossilized in their life-like former anatomy. The name is not known but these are the rarest of all the types of stromatolites found and they never occur in large globular balls as do the other forms that are found higher up in the layers. This is a beautiful THREE-DIMENSIONAL form fossil of associated colonies (found all together as shown), that is 100% natural as originally fossilized. The fossil stromatolites you find on the market are mostly the remaining accretions of the colonies but rarely, are they the colonies themselves. With this offering, we present a stunning large layer bearing countless THE ACTUAL COLONIES, in life-like form, as fossilized.
There is a patch on the host rock that shows texture different than the surrounding rock. This is a FORMING or emerging colony, first taking form. This can be seen in the shape of the texture and is exactly as it was found.
For the most part, the stromatolite fossils you will find for sale in the fossil trade are actually the accretionary layers formed by the activity of prehistoric cyanobacteria. The bacteria have long since vanished prior to fossilization and all that is left are sedimentary layers in which those layers are sliced and polished for the fossil market, thereby destroying the original former structure. This is an extraordinarily rare case where the life-like soft gelatinous colony of the ACTUAL CYANOBACTERIA became petrified and fossilized as it was when alive. The market has no shortage of STROMATOLITE fossils of these sliced and polished slabs of accretions of the former bacteria. Nothing you will encounter will look like this or be a fossil of the actual living colony!
The price is less than what we would realize if we were to slice the colony and sell the individual slices, as is often seen. Being a PERMIAN stromatolite, this is also an extreme rarity as very seldom are stromatolites from this geologic period ever seen on the market.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for the finest institutional exhibitions or advanced collections of extremely rare specimens.
