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A couple of hours north of Perth towards Lake Thetis on Western Australia's Coral Coast, the landscape suddenly transforms. The verdant nature seems to take on the features of an Escher painting and gives way to a large limestone stain which immediately catches the attention. It's about the Stromatolites, the oldest living organisms on earth, the same ones to which we owe our life today.
Appeared more than three billion years ago they had the task of emitting oxygen, and therefore making the Earth's atmosphere breathable.
Take a road trip along the coast of oldest continent on Earth it also means this. Not only coming into contact with primordial nature and incredible animals such as kangaroos, emus and echidnas, but also with another rare form of life to which we owe our very existence.
Stromatolites appear to the eye as stratified rocks. These are sedimentary structures that are observed in limestone rocks and which are the result of the action of photosynthetic microorganisms, in particular cyanobacteria.
Their testimonies are rare in the world and Australia, in this sense, has become the custodian territory of this precious treasure, which allows them to be admired without diving thanks to a walkway, together with Exuma Sound and Little Darby Island, in the Bahamas.
Fossils of the earliest stromatolites, which date back 3,5 billion years, are found near Marble Bar in the Pilbara region. Observing this panorama is a unique experience in the world which can give us back all the charm of what the world was like at the dawn of time. Before plants, before dinosaurs and before humans.
At sunset the atmosphere becomes incredible: the calm waters of the bay form the backdrop to the reddish color of the fossils which recall that of the sun immersing itself in the sea. And everything lights up with magic!
But there are other members of the stromatolite family which are present on this stretch of coast and which provide the same evocative scenery, these are thrombolites, a little younger but equally witnesses of the life of the past. One of the few places in the world where thrombolites are present is Lake Clifton in Western Australia.
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