PALEOECOLOGY OF THE DECLINE OF STROMATOLITES IN THE ORDOVICIAN

A stromatolite is a “laminated benthic microbial deposit.” Its uniqueness arises from surviving since 3.5 billion years ago, and never disappearing. Stromatolites recorded a peak time during the Mesoproterozoic (from 1600 to 1000 Ma), after which it witnessed abrupt rises and falls in abundance with the steepest decline in the Ordovician period (from 495 to 443 Ma), from which it never recovered from until the present day. A number of researchers have hypothesized the reasons behind the decline of stromatolites, but a consensus has not been reached yet. Thus the decline of stromatolites remains an enigma to be solved. Additionally, a literature gap exists regarding the reasons that specifically led to the Ordovician decline. Accordingly, the focus of this literature-based MSc. thesis is to find the reasons that led to the stromatolites decline in the Ordovician – through merging abiotic and biotic palaeoecological tools of that time – an approach that has not been implemented before in the study of stromatolites.