From slime to fossils

Описание: Microbial mats are a slimy layer cake of bacteria, archaea, and other microbes that together created one of the earliest ecosystems on Earth, around 3.5 billion years ago. Microbial mats are why we have fossils of the earliest known multicellular animals and other creatures on Earth, like Dickinsonia. Thanks to microbial mats, we have a window into Earth's evolutionary history when it transitioned from microscopic organisms to critters you could see with your naked eye.

Relevant links for this episode:
• Oases of Bacteria Provided Oxygen to Spark Evolution of First Multicellular Animals: https://www.discovermagazine.com/plan...
• NASA Ames Microbial Ecology / Biogeochemistry Research Laboratory: https://spacescience.arc.nasa.gov/mic...
• Dickinsonia: http://www.ediacaran.org/dickinsonia....

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