This is a piece of a living stromatolite, that I've just chopped.

这是一块活叠层，我刚刚把它切碎。

For two billion years, stromatolites ruled our planet unchallenged.

在 20 亿年间，叠层无可争议地统治着我们星球。

And their fossils are often preserved as layered rock structures, called stromatolites.

它们常常以分层岩结式保存下来，称为叠层。

Now, what probably looks like a bunch of wrinkly old rocks are actually stromatolites.

现在，看起来像一堆皱巴巴老岩东西实际上是叠层。

These limestone-like carbonates are known on Earth to preserve stromatolites, mounds formed by bacterial growth.

这些类似灰岩酸盐在地球上以保存由细菌生长成叠层而着称。

A group of stromatolites in Western Australia are thought to be 3.5bn years old.

澳大利亚西部一组叠层被认为有35亿年历史。

Well the first fossil evidence are what are called stromatolites.

那么，最早证据就是所谓叠层。

Some of the oldest known evidence of life on Earth are fossilised biofilms known as stromatolites.

一些已知地球生命最古老证据是被称为层状叠层生物膜。

Some of the first life that we find on our planet are in these fossils called stromatolites.

我们在地球上发现一些最早生命式存在于这些被称为叠层中。

The fossils are called stromatolites, and they’re made up of layers of sediment formed by growing mats of bacteria.

这些被称为叠层，由细菌生长层成沉积层成。

These are some stromatolites that are forming today in Australia.

这些是现今在澳大利亚成叠层。

The wavy shapes and textures of certain layers looked similar to other stromatolites.

某些层次波浪状和纹理看起来与其它叠层相似。

In 2016, researchers found signs of some really old fossils called stromatolites, which are sediment layers made by bacterial mats.

2016年，研究人员发现了名为叠层一些非常古老迹象，叠层是由细菌垫成沉积层。

And billions of years ago, these stromatolites, ancient communities of photosynthetic bacteria that are equal parts biology and geology, may have exhaled the first breaths of life-giving oxygen.

数十亿年前这些叠层，古老光合细菌群落，它们在生物学和地质学中是一样部分，可能已经呼出了第一口提供生命氧气。

And so these are rock taken, this is from Glacier National Park, and so stromatolites formed really ancient in our life and they're essentially bacterial gnats.

这些岩样本来自冰川国家公园，其中成叠层极为古老， 它们基本上是由细菌成微生物席。

Layers of sediment can also just build up over time, but the shape and chemical signatures in a stromatolite can reveal if it was formed by microbes.

沉积层也可以随着时间逐渐积累，但叠层状和学特征可以揭示它是否由微生物成。

The shape and texture of certain layers in the rocks, plus their chemical composition, are clues that there are stromatolites made by microbes inside the rocks.

岩中某些层次状和纹理，加上它们学成分， 都是线索， 表明岩内部存在由微生物成叠层。

These calcareous structures — the result of what was a brand-new process, using solar radiation as a source of energy — are stromatolites, constructed by complex microbial communities, in particular cyanobacteria.

这些钙质结是叠层，由复杂微生物群落成，特别是蓝藻细菌。这是一个全新过程，利用太阳辐射作为能量来源。

In a paper published this week, Australian researchers found signs of stromatolites in 3.7 billion year old rocks in Greenland – some of the oldest rocks anywhere on Earth.

在本周发表一篇论文中，澳大利亚研究人员在格陵兰岛发现了一些37亿年前岩中含有叠层迹象——这些是地球上最古老岩之一。

Everywhere, even a short hike from my apartment in Boulder, Colorado, brings me face-to-face with this stromatolite rock from the end of the world, left behind by foul microbial mats.

无论身处何地， 即便是在科罗拉多州博尔德市， 从我公寓出发进行一次短暂徒步旅行，我都会邂逅这种来自世界尽头叠层，它们是由恶臭微生物垫遗留下来。