Discovered in Early Proterozoic Xuanlong iron ore deposits are six genera of fossil iron bacteria, i. e. sphere (coenobium of) rod-shaped (monomer) Naumanniella, ellipsoid elliptical Ochrobium,sphere spherical Siderocapsa and chain spherical Siderococcus, chain rod-shaped Leptothrix and Lieskeella, and six genera of fossil blue bacteria, namely sphere spherical Gloeocapsa, Synechocystis and Globobacter, chain spherical Anabaena and Nostoc, and con-strictive septate tubular Nodularia. The biomineralized monomers and coenobia of the two cate-gories of bacteria, together with hematite plates made up the bacteria pelletal, bacteria silky, bacteria fibrous and clasty bacteria pelletal textural lamina. The bacteria pelletal laminae com-bined with other bacteria laminae to make up oncolite, stromatolite and laminate. The precipita-tion of iron oxide was accelerated due to iron and blue bacteria cohabiting on microbial film or mat. The Xuanlong iron ore deposits are microbial binding ore deposits of ocean source.
DAI Yongding, SONG Haiming & SHEN Jiying Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029, China
