Stromatolites …are rock like structures formed by cyanobacteria and are the oldest known fossil records of life on Earth. The beach at Saltcoats was there billions of years before Saltcoats arrived. So here's a little delve into the prehistory of a rock on its beach.
SALTCOATS
On a rock on a ancient shore which in 2.6 billion years will become Saltcoats beach.
3 bacteria…Alec, his boy, Young Rab and Big Andra ….are deep in discussion.
Rab....Da.
Alec....Whit is it son?
Rab....Am no happy Da.
Alec....your no happy! ... naebody on this rocks happy, and why ye might ask? Because happiness has not been invented yet…that my lad in a nutshell, is why yerno happy!
Rab....But Da am fed up being stuck here…a want tae dae something with ma life.
Alec...whit?
Rab....A want adventure, a want tae swim free in the tides of the oceans, be swept away tae far off shores an meet other primordial life forms.
Alec....Jesus son …yer bacteria…bacteria don’t huve adventures we hing about dain bugger all.
Rab....Bit Da a know there’s a world out there and a want tae see it.
Alec....Andra! wid ye listen tae this eejit…he want tae leave the rock.
Andra...Leave the rock!…leave the rock is it ..al gee you leave the rock! … listen son we’ve been on this bloody rock for 300 million years, and fur the next 300 million years we’ll still be stuck here!
This is whit we dae..we hing oot here forming a living mat …cellularly splitting tae make mer living mats...we are living mat producers...that’s our job…we are primordial life son and you should be proud o' that…...never forget son you are cyanobacteria …our kind have struggled for over 300 million years tae perfect photosyntheses. Wi hid tae deal wi oxygen..wan of the most volatile elements on the planet..and we conquered it ……mind you we killed about 99 % of all other living things in the process…but heigh….that’s progress !
Rab....Bit Andra…there’s a world out there and it’s calling tae me…a can feel it in my cytoplasm !
Andra...World! world is it! it disnae matter wan bit where ye go in this world, yel find bacteria just like us lamped on tae rocks …eekin oot a livin ..absorbing and photosynthesising …it’s a hard life al grant ye that…but it’s the only life on this planet.
Rab....Bit a want tae taste the sweet tang of life!
Alec....Taste? whit! ye've no got a mooth…and come tae think of it ye've no got the other necessary bit at the other end.
Rab....ah know o this but a want tae break free… a want tae be in control of ma ain destiny.
Alec....Free! free ….al gee ye free. ….cut yer ties wi this boulder and yer gubbed son. ….drifting aimlessly at the mercy o' the elements… you could end up washed up on a far aff shore. ..absorbed by something that nane o' us have ever seen afore....christ Andra…..young bacteria nooadays.
Rab....Da a don’t care am gonny dae ma ain thing.
Alec....Andra!...take yer haun aff his cytoplasmic cell membrane.
Andra….A wid Alec…but ave nae hons… they huvnae been invented yet.
Alec...Aye … right enough.