Abstract
During the last two decades the occurrence of microbial fossils in silicified Precambrian rocks has become firmly established. The significance of these early microorganisms in the bio-geo-chemical evolution has been recognized, and their frequent affiliation with. stromatolitic structures, common in Precambrian strata, has been documented (Reviewed by Schopf, 1970b; Licari and Cloud, 1972). A large number of Precambrian fossil microorganisms has been formally described (pflug, 1965, 1966; Schopf, 1968; Schopf and Blacic, 1971). Based on these descriptions and identifications oftaxonomic affmities of Precambrian microorganisms, dates have been proposed for important early evolutionary events, such as photosynthesis (Schopf et al., 1971), N2 -fixation (Cloud, 1974), Eukaryotic cell organization (Schopf, 1968, 1970b; Cloud et al., 1969) and sex (Schopf and Blacic, 1971). However, the criteria used in identification offossil microorganisms remain in many cases dubious, leaving the already generally accepted conclusions on shaky grounds..
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Golubić, S., Barghoorn, E.S. (1977). Interpretation of Microbial Fossils with Special Reference to the Precambrian. In: Flügel, E. (eds) Fossil Algae. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66516-5_1
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