This is part two of the geology tour. We’ve just been looking at the meteorite and now moving along the red line on the floor until it goes into the wall. You are going to have to walk around the room five times, come out here, and you just walked through the pre-Cambrian, almost all of that – nine tenths of the history of the Earth – was based on bacteria and microbial life.
The case on the floor in front of you now, it says pre-Cambrian, contains stromatolites. These are the most early evidence for life at this age. They’re effectively colonies of bacteria that were sort of sticky. Sediment stuck to them, sand washing over them and they built up into these strange mounds on the floor of the sea. There are very few of these alive now because mostly they are eaten by grazing animals but at this time there weren’t any so the sea was dominated by them.
This is part two of the geology tour. We’ve just been looking at the meteorite and now moving along the red line on the floor until it goes into the wall. You are going to have to walk around the room five times, come out here, and you just walked through the pre-Cambrian, almost all of that – nine tenths of the history of the Earth – was based on bacteria and microbial life.
The case on the floor in front of you now, it says pre-Cambrian, contains stromatolites. These are the most early evidence for life at this age. They’re effectively colonies of bacteria that were sort of sticky. Sediment stuck to them, sand washing over them and they built up into these strange mounds on the floor of the sea. There are very few of these alive now because mostly they are eaten by grazing animals but at this time there weren’t any so the sea was dominated by them.
leedsmuseums about 2 years ago
The second section of a tour around the geology on display at Leeds City Museum. Curator Joe Botting takes you around the Life on Earth gallery.
leedsmuseums about 2 years ago