Stromatolites, Sharks Bay, Western Australia

Stromatolites of Australia:  Billions of Years Old?

Stromatolites are described by evolutionists as the longest living organisms and fossils on earth, as they are believed to have originated 3.5 billion years ago. Defined as layered biochemical accretionary structures formed in shallow water, stromatolites form by the trapping, binding, and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms or microbial mats of microorganisms, including cyanobacteria (1). Stromatolites form a variety of shapes including conical, stratiform, branching, domal, and columnar types. Stromatolites are found in the fossil record most abundantly in what is known as the Pre-Cambrian rock strata but much less in younger strata. For many years, scientists believed that these organisms were extinct until they were discovered in western Australia in 1956 at Shark's Bay. Scientists later discovered more living stromatolites across western Australia in both marine and non-marine environments. Later discoveries found living stromatolites in the thermal springs of Yellowstone National Park, the lakes of Antarctica, the marine environment off the Bahamas, and Aldabra Island in the western Indian Ocean. Creationists describe the Pre-Cambrian strata as the pre-Flood strata and dramatic change in environmental conditions caused this once abundant life form to become much less prevalent on Earth. Many of the modern living stromatolites have similarities to the fossilized versions and lead creationists to believe that these "living fossils" are not as old a previously thought. The fact that these stromatolites have not changed much since their origin indicates that these life forms are not the product of millions of years of evolution but appeared during the creation week 6,000 years ago. Evolutionists also cannot explain the sudden decline in the abundance of stromatolites from Pre-Cambrian strata to the Cambrian while creationists know the effects of the Genesis Flood dramatically changed the environmental conditions on earth so that the occurrence is much less common today. The occurrence of living stromatolites today indicates that these organisms can survive in an oxygen-rich environment, giving less evidence of an "oxygen-less" early earth proposed by evolutionists (2).
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(1) Riding, R. (2007). "The term stromatolite: towards an essential definition". Lethaia. 32 (4): 321–330. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1999.tb00550.
(2) Stromatolites by Land and by Sea. Clarey, Tim, Institute for Creation Research. January 22, 2018.