We have observed fossil microbes in an ancient stromatolite. They are made of siderite (or an amorphous form of FeCO3).
According to my knowldge, it was Michael Wuttke who descripted it for the first time:
Wuttke, M. (1986): A. “Weichteil-Erhaltung” durch lithifizierte Mikroorganismen bei mittel-eozänen Vertebraten aus den Ölschiefern der “Grube Messel” bei Darmstadt. – Senckenbergeana Lethaea, 64 (5/6): 509-527.
Hi my dear Stéphane!! How are you? In my group at the IPGP, a PhD student work on very old stromatolite (3.45 Ga) in Australia. I think you can contact them: Marie Catherine Sforna, and her supervisor Pascal Philippot. Their recent paper (Geochemica and Cosmochima Acta 124 (2014)), 18-33: Structural characterization by Raman hyperspectral mappingof organic carbon in the 3.46 billion-year-old Apex chert,Western Australia. Sforna, van Zuilen and Philippot. See you
Köhler, I., Konhauser, K. O., Papineau, D., Bekker, A., & Kappler, A. (2013). Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations. Nature communications, 4, 1741.
Regards
Stephanos
Have you taken a look at chapter 8(a) from Schieber et al. 2007. "Atlas of Microbial Mat Features Preserved Within the Siliciclastic Rock Record"? It might help. Regards.
I have one ;) see my paper
Baele JM. (2003) Siderite Globules associated with fossil microbiota from Cretaceous cavity and fracture fillings in Southern Belgium...", Proceedings of SPIE, 4859, 1-14
Hi Jean-Marc,
Thanks for your answer. I cannot dowload it form the SPIE website. Could you please send me a pdf of it by email?
Stephane
According to my current knowledge, you can see
Köhler, I., Konhauser, K. O., Papineau, D., Bekker, A., & Kappler, A. (2013). Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations. Nature communications, 4, 1741.
what is the age of these stromatolites? Siderite replacements can be quite common in certain sedimentary rocks - as pointed out in several other comments with reference to ltierature. Can you provide some more details?
These are Early Carboniferous dolomitic stromatolites. Only the bugs are made of siderite, the rest is dolomite.
Dear Stéphane
We are studing marine methane-derived carbonates composed by siderite and Mg-calcite and dolomite (nodules, chimneys and crusts). All these mineralizations are microbial mediated by oxidation of hydrocarbons. You can find some references in:
González F.J., Somoza L., León, R., Medialdea, T., Torres T.,Ortiz J.E., Lunar R., Martínez-Frías J.,Merinero, R. 2012. Ferromanganese nodules and micro-hardgrounds associated with the Cadiz Contourite Channel (NE Atlantic): Palaeoenvironmental records of fluid venting and bottom currents. Chemical Geology 310-311: 56–78
Magalhães, V.H., Pinheiro, L.M., Ivanov, M.K., Kozlova, E., Blinova, V., Kolganova, J., Vasconcelos, C., McKenzie, J.A., Bernasconi, S.M., Kopf, A., Díaz-del-Río, V., González, F.J., Somoza, L. 2012. Formation processes of methane-derived authigenic carbonates from the Gulf of Cadiz. Sedimentary Geology 243-244, 155-168