The tiny town of Flower’s Cove on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula is one of only two places in the world where the fossilized remains of some of the Earth’s oldest and most primitive life forms can be found. Lining the shoreline of this tiny saltwater Cove are thrombolites — gray, bun-shaped rock formations estimated to be 650-million-years-old. Their name means “clotted structure.” Thrombolites are thought to be the planet’s first living creatures to release free oxygen, and they predate dinosaurs by at least 225 million years. The thrombolytic formations are about three to four meters in diameter. Although some have broken over time, most have a circular center surrounded by pie-shaped wedges. Often described as “living rocks,” they were created by prehistoric unicellular microorganisms depositing layers of calcium carbonate leached from the surrounding water. The results were solid grey structures resembling flattened boulders.…