The history of the study of bacterial/cyanobacterial forms in phosphorites

The first bacterial (bacillus-like) form in phosophorites was described by B. Renault and C.E. Bertrand from coprolites of vertebrates in the bituminous shales from the Autun region, France, in 1895. In 1990, B. Renault revealed coccoid bacteria from the same deposits. In 1983, D. Soudry and Y. Champetier described for the first time the capsules of cyanobacterial threads from Campanian phosphorites of the Negev Desert, Israel. Glycocalics was first found in the Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous phosphorites of the Egor'evskoe deposit on the Russian Platform, where it coexists with coccoid bacteria.