Lamination as a tool for distinguishing microbial and metazoan biosystems from inert structures

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945), who is regarded as one of the founders of modern biogeochemistry, has stated in “Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon” (1991:120) that “the biosphere appears in biogeochemistry as a peculiar envelope of the Earth clearly distinct from the other envelopes of our planet”. One of the distinctive features of living matter is the tendency to occur in sheets, laminae, and multilaminar structures that often include sediment particles. The objective of our study is to develop and to present a catalogue of microbial structural signatures in sediments, sediment surfaces, but also in the growth of macroorganisms such as Bryozoa (Moss animals). Moving from the actualistic viewpoint to rock records, structures of microbial, metazoan and abiotic origin may thus be recognized, and provide evidence on facies-dependent biological activities in bygone terrestrial and aquatic environments.