Abstract: Stromatolites are organic-sedimentary structures,built mainly by microbes through trapping,binding of coarse-grained sediment and in-situ precipitation,and may potentially preserve direct evidence evolution of life on the Earth.During the 20 years hitherto,many new viewpoints on genesis and formation models of stramatolites have been proposed.In this paper,the recent progress in study on stromatolites genesis is generalized,including stromatolites types,constituents and internal structures of microbialmats,relationship between formation of stromatolites with microbial photosynthesis, sulfate reduction etc.,as well as their basic formation processes and conditions.Based on the comparison with modern stromatolites analogues,the necessary and particular requirements with respect to deposition,water bodies and biogenie conditions are also viewed briefly.