Microbial Mat

Description:

It's rained a lot and this deep puddle persisted for several days. In it is a disturbed microbial mat, which is a microbial community composed mainly of photosynthetic prokaryotes. Bubbles are oxygen, produced by photosynthesis of cyanobacteria and algae. I could be wrong about this ID ...

Habitat:

From Wikipedia:

Microbial mats are the earliest form of life on Earth for which there is good fossil evidence, from 3,500 million years ago, and have been the most important members and maintainers of the planet's ecosystems. Originally they depended on hydrothermal vents for energy and chemical "food," but the development of photosynthesis gradually liberated them from the "hydrothermal ghetto" by proving a more widely available energy source, sunlight, although initially the photosynthesizing mats still depended on the diffusion of chemicals emitted by hydrothermal vents. The final and most significant stage of this liberation was the development of oxygen-producing photosynthesis, since the main chemical inputs for this are carbon dioxide and water.

As a result microbial mats began to produce the atmosphere we know today, in which free oxygen is a vital component. At around the same time they may also have been the birthplace of the more complex eukaryote type of cell, of which all multicellular organisms are composed.

Notes:

I'm going to have to revisit the Notes on this one after I do more learning. I was aware that things a lot like this have been discovered in the most unlikely places all over the world.

Over the past hour or so, I've taken a ride through information about co-operative organisms, algae, planetary evolution, microbial life, prokaryotes, eukaryotes, biofilms, etc. And since microbial mats are very ancient forms of life, I've also learned that something a whole lot like this Microbial Mat had a lot to do with the oxygenization of the planet ... and I knew that, I just never associated it with modern "pond scum."

Like I said, I could be really wrong about this ...