Written in the Hills
Ozark Stromatolites
Bruce Stinchcomb

Stromatolites are stony structures produced by various forms of photosynthetic life. They have
been referred to as "living rocks". A variety of different types and geologic ages of stromatolites
are found in the Ozark Uplift of Missouri and Arkansas. Stromatolites are especially common in
rock strata of Cambrian and Lower Ordovician age. They become less common in younger rocks,
probably because numerous organisms living in the seas cropped the stromatolites as food---they
became gigantic masses of potential salids.

Stromatolites are found in Precambrian rocks of the Ozarks (Ozarkcollenia) along with some
other dubiofossils. Stromatolites are however, most abundant in Cambrian and Lower Ordovician
rocks where they often habored ecosystems rich in a variety of mollusks including gastropods (snails),
monoplacophorans, multi-plated mollusks (chitons and problematic forms), cephalopods and
possibly aplacophorans.

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Ozarks Paleontology