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 fossil market has no shortage of STROMATOLITE fossils but in every case, they are sliced and polished slabs of a former fossil colony. The fossil colonies look little more than amorphous stone blobs prior to slicing, lacking any fine original life-like detail. This is an EXTREMELY RARE and unusual example of a WHOLE AND COMPLETE LIFELIKE lacustrine (formed in a prehistoric lake) stromatolite colony once deposited by prehistoric cyanobacteria. Not only is it rare to be whole in its natural form, it is from the Permian Period, a period of time absent in most stromatolite fossil collections!
This specimen has been laboriously prepared in our lab where we painstakingly removed the upper matrix rock layer to reveal all the delicate intact anatomy of each colony. The detail is so minute and intact that it appears as if still alive exactly as it was just prior to the Permian extinction, the most devastating mass extinction our planet has ever endured. We have never before seen such an exquisite fossilized cyanobacteria colony as these.
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 any institutional exhibition or collection.
