Boreskov

OP‐24CUATRO CIENEGAS: A PRECAMBRIAN ASTROBIOLOGY PARKSiefert J.Rice University, Houston, USAThe Cuatro Cienegas Bolson, an oasis in the Chihuahuan desert in the state of Coahuila,Mexico is a rare place. It has a biological endemism equal to the Galapagos, it presentsanomalous elemental stoichiometry with regards to phosphorus, and its hydrologic system isdominated by living stromatolitic features. As such it has proven a distinctive opportunity forthe field of Astrobiology. CCB is a reasonable proxy for an earlier time in earth’s history, thelate Precambrian, the biological frontier when microbial life was giving way to thedominance of more complex eukaryotic organisms. It is an extant ecological time machinethat provides investigative collaborative opportunity for geochemists, geologists, biologists,and population biologists to study the evolutionary process of earth based life, especiallymicrobial ones. It can and is being prospected for the designing of biosignatures of past andpresent life that can be used in our search for life extra‐terrestrially.We summarize research efforts that began with microbial population biology basedprojects and expanded into correlative efforts in biogeochemistry, comparative genomics.We outline the future of CCB as a Precambrian Park for Astrobiology.70