Ever since Kalkowsky created a term of stromatolite in 1908,research on stromatolites has continuously been expanded from different methodological perspectives;a century later stromatolites continue to be actively investigated to document the early history of life on Earth. Stromatolites provide an indirect and complex evidence of early life on Earth,and today they represent a diversifying signature of life activities in which much of the modern research is focusing. More enchantingly,modern stromatolites that are marked by the composition diversity not only does demonstrate that cyanobacterial mats are constructing stromatolites but also reflect that the translation from cyanobacterial mats to stromatolites is not a direct process. These typical examples reflecting the composition diversity of constructing stromatolites are:(1)large conical stromatolites that are made up of muddy sediments in Lake Untersee,Antarctica;(2)siliceous stromatolites that are formed in thermal lake at Frying Pan Lake in North Island of New Zealand as well as at the Yellowstone National Park in USA;(3)carbonate stromatolites in Bahamas,Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Shark Bay of Australia. Because of both that stromatolites continue to be a puzzling and crucial piece in the map of life and that whether cyanobacterial mats may be the potential morphological precursors for ancient stromatolites is a continue debating problem,the composition diversity of modern stromatolites becomes a key and window for the further understanding of the formation of ancient stromatolites. On basis of lots researching fruits by many scientists,tracing these fruitful and starting researches on the composition diversity of modern stromatolites that could delegate rich and sophisticate information of sedimentation and microbial metabolism are meaningful to further understanding the sedimentilogical feature and the biological nature of stromalites;moreover,this work can enrich the researching content of mat sedimentology and broaden the studying domain of facies analysis.