Category Archives: Proterozoic

The Stirling fauna: big critters from the dawn of time?

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Chris Rowan

I really wasn’t intending to leave Geopuzzle 14 hanging out unanswered on the interweb for as long as it has – and not just because my delay has apparently put my beer stash in jeopardy. The answer is actually both … Continue reading →

Categories: fossils, geopuzzling, paper reviews, past worlds, Proterozoic

Sadly, not sandworms

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Chris Rowan

The answer to Friday’s geopuzzler
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Categories: Archean, fossils, geology, past worlds, Proterozoic

How the air we breathe became breathable

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Chris Rowan

What geology tells us about the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere.
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Categories: Archean, geochemistry, geology, paper reviews, past worlds, Proterozoic

Bacteria and black smokers go back a long way

Posted on August 21, 2007 by Chris Rowan

I tempered the other week’s repost on some rather impressive 1.5 billion year-old black smoker chimneys, and the fossilised microbes found within them, with some words of caution about the ‘clues to the origin of life’ spin that the discovery … Continue reading →

Categories: fossils, geology, paper reviews, Proterozoic

Namibia: the stromatolites’ last hurrah

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Some of the more massive limestone beds in the Nama group are chock full of stromatolites, the remnants of sizeable Precambrian algal reefs. Technically, stromatolites are not true fossils, because the mineralised layers are not directly precipitated by the photosynthetic … Continue reading →