Cryptozoan rosemontensis Ordovician Stromatolites

Coming from the Lower Ordovician Oneota Formation, these stromatolites are some 500 million years old, from a time that Prokaryotic life forms no longer had exclusive use of earth's shorelines. The earth’s coastal habitats had markedly reduced stromatolite reefs, compared with the Proterozoic. The form genera of the laminae is rather unusual having resemblance to cauliflower. The pattern is very attractive.

By this time in geological history that these stromatolites were formed, microbial communities consisted of complex consortia of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic forms with diverse metabolic needs, and competition for resources and differing motility among them made for an intriguing microcosm of interacting life, some autotrophic, some chemotrophic and some heterotrophic. However, stromatolite reefs are believed to have regained a temporary foothold following the extinctions that concluded the Cambrian Period. Since these stromatolites are Lower Ordovician Ordovician, they may well have been part of the resurgence when predation by other organisms was temporarily, at least, suppressed.