{
  "abstract": "Fossil microbialites resulting from the interplay of sedimentation and precipitation are among the oldest evidence of life on Earth and help geobiologists to interpret many sedimentary environments. However, the factors governing their internal structure and external morphology are still poorly understood. Additionally, abiotic processes can mimic the morphology of some microbialites, complicating their use as ‘biosignatures’. The presence and style of internal structures such as clots and laminations may help solve both problems, but existing models of microbialite growth address only external morphology and do not show explicitly how internal structures emerge. In this work, we present an agent‐based model of microbialite formation using a fast, open‐source, high‐level microbialite modelling framework, written in Julia. We separate and label the products of sedimentation and precipitation, allowing external periodic forcing to control either or both. We qualitatively reproduce a wide range of internal and external morphologies found in real microbialites. Importantly, we find that microbialites with the same external morphology can differ greatly in their internal structure, a result impossible to observe with previous approaches. Further exploration and extension of our model may offer new approaches to resolving the ambiguity of potential microbialites in the rock record. Finally, we present the first interactive microbialite simulation to enable live parameter updating through an accessible interface that can be used as a tool for both research and teaching.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK",
    "Edinburgh Centre for Planetary Sciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK",
    "Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden the Netherlands",
    "Department of Chemistry Howard University Washington DC USA",
    "Earth and Planets Laboratory Carnegie Institution for Science Washington DC USA",
    "Blue Marble Space Institute for Science Seattle Washington USA",
    "Department of Biology IISER Pune Pune Maharashtra India",
    "School of Geosciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Niall Rodgers",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3936-2709"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Laurane Fogret",
      "orcid": "0009-0005-2639-468X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Mark van Zuilen",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6723-6366"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "H. James Cleaves",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4101-0654"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Sudha Rajamani",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6030-495X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        7
      ],
      "name": "Sean McMahon",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8589-2041"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3tar6vvbvd0v9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1111/gbi.70071",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13736403/",
  "id": "3tar6vvbvd0v9",
  "issns": [
    "1472-4677",
    "1472-4669"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.70071",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1911|Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7154046201",
  "pdf_url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/gbi.70071",
  "pmcid": "PMC13736403",
  "pmid": "42982765",
  "published": "2026-11-04",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3tar6vvbvd0v9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-09T12:21:51Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13736403",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.70071"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1911|Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Agent‐Based Modelling of Microbialite Formation Through Sedimentation and Precipitation Dynamics",
  "title_text": "Agent‐Based Modelling of Microbialite Formation Through Sedimentation and Precipitation Dynamics",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T12:21:51Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3tar6vvbvd0v9",
  "venue": "Geobiology",
  "versions": []
}