Explore: Microbial Mats

A microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet or biofilm of microbial colonies, composed of mainly bacteria and/or archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces

of microbial mats contain fossils, and Ediacaran fossils are almost always found in beds that contain these microbial mats. Although microbial mats were

how microbial mats and microbial activity influence the formation of fossils and the preservation of soft tissues. In these studies, microbial mats entomb

that cement sand and other rocky materials to form mineral "microbial mats". In turn, these mats build up layer by layer, growing gradually over time. This

fossils, however, may have originated from non-biological processes. Microbial mats of coexisting bacteria and archaea were the dominant form of life in

results in metabolically-related microbial communities forming at specific cave sites. Preliminary studies of cave microbial mats revealed metabolically active

cyanobacterial exopolysaccharides in phototrophic biofilms and in complex microbial mats". Life. 5 (2): 1218–38. Bibcode:2015Life....5.1218R. doi:10.3390/life5021218

ancient life including stromatolites and MISS once formed by microbial mats. Such microbial mats belong to the oldest ascertained life form and may include

supported by the microbial mats which cover the ground of the marsh. The Sippewissett Salt Marsh houses a diverse, laminated intertidal microbial mat around 1 cm

has barely been explored even in the beginning of the 21st century. microbial mats Marine microorganisms have been variously estimated to make up about