[Rockhounds] Scientists discover unknown prehistoric world — on Earth

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

In the profoundly remote Argentina desert, at over 12,000 feet high, and in
a place where no roads go, scientists found an exotic world new to science.

Among white salt plains atop the Puna de Atacama plateau, there's a system
of greenish lagoons harboring vast bacterial communities, called
stromatolites, that create layered mounds as they expand. The unique
ecosystem might be a glimpse into Earth
<https://mashable.com/article/earth-pictures-images-from-space>, billions
of years ago, when primitive organisms first appeared on our planet.

"This lagoon could be one of the best modern examples of the earliest signs
of life on Earth," geologist Brian Hynek, one of the scientists who found
this elusive ecosystem, said in a statement
<https://www.colorado.edu/today/2023/12/06/deep-within-inhospitable-desert-window-first-life-earth>.
"It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen or, really, like anything any
scientist has ever seen."

"It’s just amazing that you can still find undocumented things like that on
our planet," Hynek, a professor at CU Boulder, marveled.

https://mashable.com/article/earth-unique-alien-life