Proterozoic stromatolites: The first marine evolutionary biota

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Abstract
Proterozoic stromatolites represent a Marine Evolutionary Biota, analogous to the three marine evolutionary faunas of the Phanerozoic that have been recognized on the basis of their characteristic benthic metazoans. The pattern of expansion and subsequent decline in morphological diversity of these earliest collectively mineralized benthic ecosystems is documented in this report. First known from the Archean, stromatolites began to radiate significantly in the Paleoproterozoic, beginning about 2500 million years ago. Throughout the Mesoproterozoic, they dominated marine shallow shelf environments as an ecologically simple, producer‐reducer ecosystem. Stromatolites declined drastically in diversity during the late Neoproterozoic and earliest Paleozoic as algae, other protistans, and metazoans diversified to form more complex, multilevel ecosystems. Remnants of this early evolutionary biota of the level sea floor survived through the Phanerozoic to the present day by retreating onshore, where they are now largely restricted to marginal marine, peritidal environments.