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Heidi Jane Allen, Paleontologist, The University of Melbourne

Earth’s oldest evidence of life is written in stone – but it’s at risk of disappearing

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, viewed from the boardwalk. Heidi Allen

Today, our planet is teeming with life, but it has not always looked the same. Long before forests reached skyward, animals walked on land, and the rise and fall of dinosaurs, our planet was shaped by a much smaller, more unassuming form of life. And we can still find traces of it today.

These ancient fossils, the earliest visible evidence of life on Earth, are known as microbialites.

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