Shark Bay, Where the Life Is Very Old

Shark Bay: A Window into Earth’s Earliest Life

Stromatolites may look like odd, rounded rocks, but they are built layer by layer by communities of microorganisms, including cyanobacteria. The ones at Shark Bay are much younger than their ancient relatives, yet formations like these take us back some 3.5 billion years in Earth’s history. The unusually salty waters of Hamelin Pool help make Shark Bay one of the best places to see living marine stromatolites.

You could read about stromatolites in a textbook and forget them by Friday. See them at Shark Bay, and the lesson is much more likely to stick. That is one reason we believe in learning through travel: getting out into the world, meeting people, and discovering things no classroom can quite reproduce.

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