A Little Background

If you want to know why this blog is here, you might want to check out my inaugural post.

If you want to know more about the Manlius Formation and stromatolites, here’s a quick overview:

The eponymous town in which I live gives its name to the geologic formation upon which it sits. About 410 million years ago in the early Devonian Period the Manlius Formation was covered by a shallow sea.

In that sea lived biofilms – sheets of microorganisms – that deposited layer after layer of sediment. The result looks to you and me like a rock. This is because it is a rock.

However, it’s more than that; it’s the fossilized accretions from the biofilms, commonly (well, commonly among those who discuss such things) known as a stromatolite.

Chris, my geologist brother-in-law, one day pointed out to me a few stromatoliate specimens sprinkled throughout our landscaping. There’s a particularly large one where our front walkway intersects with the driveway.

Every now and then I’ll walk by that rock and remind myself that it’s actually the 400-million-year-old poop from a sheet of microorganisms.