Abstract：The microbial-mat is actually a special microbial community that forms a longest and earliest ecosystem on the Earth，which has been a common view. However，both the complexity of microbial compositions and the diversity of forming environment and product，lead to several answers for the nature of the microbial-mat. Furthermore，different fields of interest find their own answers，such as it seems almost impossible to find only one single answer to the question: What are microbial-mats? Ultimately，the manifold answers of microbial-mats become the theoretical basis of the microbial-mat sedimentology, which is a young branch of sedimentology in the Earth's biological frame work. Most importantly，there are many difficulties for the further understanding of growth mechanism and formational process of the microbial-mat buildup in the geological history through the filter of the diagenesis. The problems are as follows: (1)benthic oolites within stromatolite of the Cambrian;(2)particular microbially-induced sedimentary structures (MISS)on the limetone bedding surface of the Mesoproterozoic;(3)thrombolites within a stromatolitic deposition succession of the Mesoproterozoic. Therefore，on the basis of manifold definitions of the microbial-mat，a brief introduction of the theoretical basis of the microbial-mat sedimentology will be meaningful for the further understanding of both the advance and the present situation of this young branch of sedimentology.
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