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

这一块活的叠层石，我刚刚把它切碎。

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

现在，可能看起来像一堆皱巴巴的古老岩石实叠层石。

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

它们的化石通常保存为层岩石结构，称为叠层石。

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

某些层的波浪形和纹理看起来与其他叠层石相似。

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

这些类似石灰石的碳酸盐在地球以保存叠层石，叠层石由细菌生长形成的土丘。

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

2016 年，研究人员发现了一些为叠层石的古老化石的迹象，这些化石由细菌垫形成的沉积层。

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

这些化石被称为叠层石，它们由生长的细菌垫形成的沉积物层组成。

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.

数十亿年前的这些叠层石，古老的光合细菌群落，它们在生物学和地质学中一样的部分，可能已经呼出了第一口提供生命的氧气。

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.

岩石中某些层的形和质地，加它们的化学成分， 岩石内部存在由微生物形成的叠层石的线索。

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.

这些钙质结构叠层石，由复杂的微生物群落构成，特别蓝藻细菌。这一个全新的过程，利用太阳辐射作为能量来源。

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.

随着时间的推移， 沉积物层也会不断堆积，但叠层石的形和化学特征可以揭示它否由微生物形成的。

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.

在本周发表的一篇论文中，澳大利亚研究人员在格陵兰岛 37 亿年前的岩石中发现了叠层石的迹象， 这些岩石地球任何地方最古老的岩石之一。