487 P.A. Allison and D.J. Bottjer (eds.), Taphonomy: Process and Bias Through Time, Topics in Geobiology 32, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8643-3_14, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract There is an apparent preservational paradox in the early rock record. Cellularly preserved and ensheathed microfossils which are remarkably preserved from the late Archaean (c.2700 Ma) onward, have rarely been found in the earlier rock record and when they are their biogenicity is debated. Likewise, the abundance and morphological complexity of stromatolites appears much reduced in the early Archaean and even these lack compelling associations with organic remains of micro- bial mats. This ‘preservational dark age’ may have arisen because microfossils and M.D. Brasier (*) Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK e-mail: martinbrasier@yahoo.co.uk D. Wacey Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis + School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Perth, Australia N. McLoughlin Department of Earth Sciences and centre of Excellence in Geobiology, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway Chapter 14 Taphonomy in Temporally Unique Settings: An Environmental Traverse in Search of the Earliest Life on Earth Martin D. Brasier, David Wacey, and Nicola McLoughlin Contents 1 Introduction: A Preservational Dark Age?........................................................................... 488 2 Early Eden or Distant Planet? .............................................................................................. 489 3 New Taphonomic Windows for Old .................................................................................... 490 4 Cellular Lagerstätten ............................................................................................................ 491 5 The Challenge of Pseudofossils ........................................................................................... 493 6 An Early Earth Taphonomic Traverse .................................................................................. 494 6.1 Pillow Basalts.............................................................................................................. 495 6.2 Black Smokers ............................................................................................................ 498 6.3 White Smokers............................................................................................................ 500 6.4 Seafloor Banded Cherts .............................................................................................. 500 6.5 Stromatolites ............................................................................................................... 505 6.6 Siliclastics ................................................................................................................... 509 7 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 511 References .................................................................................................................................. 512