EUKARYOTIC ALGAE Neoproterozoic 740 -750 million years Mojave Desert CA

Description

This very interesting, Precambrian fossil consists of algal mats containing members of the chlorophycean and chrysophycean class of algae colonies from the Beck Springs Dolomite Formation (Pahrump Group) of the Eastern Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California.  In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 62 #3, March 15, 1969, Authors Cloud, Licari, Wright and Troxel concluded that this fossil was the oldest Eukaryotic Algae known in the fossil record based upon an estimate at that early date of an age of 1.2 to 1.4 billion years.   However
a recent paper by Emily Smith and Eben Hodgin published in Geological Society London Special Publications - May 2015 has significantly revised the age to 740 - 750 million making it Neoproterozoic in age.  The record of this being the oldest eukaryotic algae would have been lost anyway when a discovery in 1992 was made of
the 2.1 billion year old
Grypania spiralis
found in Upper Michigan.
However, even though our Beck Springs Dolomite Formation algae fossil does not now carry the title of "oldest eukaryotic algae in the fossil record" it is still a significant milestone in the history of geologic research into the development of life on earth.  This algae grew in a mat covering water in a tepid near shore and intertidal marine environment.
One of the things we most like about this fossil occurrence is that the mats can easily be seen to be growing through time as colonies were periodically covered with precipitating calcium-magnesium carbonate (i.e. the mineral dolomite) before cells started another mat of algae on the new substrate of mineral.  The mats were ultimately fossilized by silica and the dolomite compressed into the solid rock dolostone.  Dolostone does not stand up as well to weathering as does silica and so the individual mats in the fossil appear as protrusions out of the rock as the dolostone weathers away in between the mats.  It is a great story and one easily told to friends and fellow collectors viewing your fossil collection.
This is a handsize specimen that measures 3" x 2.25" x 2".
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