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Nature 452, 40-41 (6 March 2008) | doi:10.1038/452040a; Published online 5 March 2008

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Palaeontology: Modern life in ancient mats

Michael M. Tice1

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Microbial communities seem to have inhabited tidal sediments 2.9 billion years ago much as they do today — but what organisms were involved, and how they made their living, remain intriguing questions.

Establishing from fossil records how microbes and microbial ecosystems evolved is not an easy task: although 'microfossils' have been used to infer the presence and identity of microbes in particular environments1, 2, their simple shapes and comparative rarity limit what they can tell us. An alternative approach is to look for traces of products from communities of microorganisms3, 4.

  1. Michael M. Tice is in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3115, USA.
    Email: tice@geo.tamu.edu

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Palaeontology Modern life in ancient mats

Nature News and Views (06 Mar 2008)