Microbial Mats Offer Clues to Life on Early Earth

"Most of the history of life on Earth was dominated by microbial life, and if we want to anchor our understanding of microbial evolution to this history of life we need to look at what information we can pull out of the sedimentary record," said study lead author Tyler Mackey, a geo-biologist at the University of California, Davis. If such mounds are detected on Mars and other distant planets, they could potentially be a sign of primitive microbial mats.