Part of the outer shell of SCP-3376 removed for dating and chemical analysis.

Item #: SCP-3376

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3376 is to be kept in a modified coastal fauna/flora containment facility with a simulated tidal cycle, water salinity, and mineral content matched to the eastern waters of the Indian Ocean.

Description: SCP-3376 is a single specimen of a hitherto undiscovered form of mobile stromatolite, a quasi-colonial cyanobacterial1 structure that makes up some of the earliest confirmed lifeforms in the fossil record. SCP-3376 is approximately 1.2 meters tall at the crown, and roughly cylindrical through the body. Three uneven 'legs' found beneath the body of SCP-3376 support the whole structure. The stone 'shell' of SCP-3376 has been dated to have been formed between 3100-3800 BCE. Unlike non-anomalous stromatolites SCP-3376 houses a living colony of cyanobacteria throughout its structure, rather than being a single layer of living, active cyanobacteria at water level. The outer shell of sedimentary stone houses a fluid core, and the movements of the colony within allows for movement of the three ‘legs’ of the structure. SCP-3376 moves to remain partially, though not completely submerged in salt water.

SCP-3376 is not measurably intelligent, but is reactive, able to remain optimally submerged despite tidal shifts. Before being moved to site-██ SCP-3376 was observed migrating uphill in the hours before heavy rainfall, suggesting some method of reading atmospheric conditions.

Humans coming into direct physical contact with SCP-3376 experience intense and detailed hallucinations, though no chemical transfer has been recorded that would explain this reaction. While a number of discrepancies have been recorded, in all cases these hallucinations have taken the form of an out-of-body experience overlooking a sheltered cove filled with non-mobile stromatolites and possible instances of SCP-3376. Those affected by SCP-3376 are subjected to what has been reported as thousands of years watching the largely uneventful image of the cove, though the actual length of the hallucinogenic state as recorded by outside observers lasts only between 3-4 minutes, in which the subject remains motionless, maintaining contact with SCP-3376. While the removal of the subject from direct contact with SCP-3376 before the end of the hallucination has been shown to shorten the length of both the recorded, and experienced hallucination, it does not immediately do so. Subjects who are separated from SCP-3376 before the cessation of the effect have been shown to take significantly longer to recover. Scanning of subjects in contact with SCP-3376 during the hallucinogenic effect has shown a sudden, and almost complete cessation of brain activity in the pre-frontal and primary visual cortices2, which returns to normal levels at the conclusion of the hallucinogenic state.

Psychological trauma is below the level usually expected from such experiences, with subjects claiming to find the experience "very peaceful", and at worst "somewhat melancholy". There is no evidence of lasting physical or psychological damage resulting from exposure to SCP-3376 and its anomalous properties.

Interview 3376-4: The following interview is of particular note in the documentation of the anomalous properties of SCP-3376.

Interviewed: D-19-4722

Interviewer: Assistant Researcher W. █████

Foreword: The following interview was conducted immediately after the fourth intentional exposure test on SCP-3376. D-19-4722's hallucinogenic state lasted approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Latter experiments made use of portable ECG units to more accurately gauge the length of this state.

<Begin Log, 09/03/20██, 14:09>

W. █████: Alright. I'd like you to tell me about what you experienced in there. Start by repeating what you said when you let go of SCP-3376.

D-19-4722: The rock?

W. █████: …Yes, the rock.

D-19-4722: I, uh… Don't remember.

W. █████: You said "Wait, wait, not yet."

W. █████: What did you see?

D-19-4722: It was… I think I was in there for a while. Like, a long while. I lost count.

W. █████: Lost count? Can you elaborate?

D-19-4722: Of days. I lost count of the days. They were moving so fast, and I lost count.

W. █████: You can't have been out for more than a few minutes. How long do you think you were "in there"?

D-19-4722: Years. I think. Years and years and years. Thousands. Maybe more. It was all so quick, and nothing changed, just all those rocks down in the water growing. Getting a little bigger, maybe… Maybe moving around a little, it was hard to tell. I don't think I saw any, you know… Plants or animals, grasses or whatever you get on beaches. I don't know, it looked kind of bare.

W. █████: Were you able to move around at all? Do you think you would be able to change your location within the hallucination? Look elsewhere?

D-19-4722: No, no, I don't think… I don't know. I watched that beach for… For so long, and it just never… I never wanted to look away. It was… Nice. Calmest trip I've ever been on.

W. █████: Can you recall anything else? Any… Events? Any changes?

D-19-4722: …Ice. Near the end, I think… There was ice out on the water. Getting closer. I think it was… Just reaching the rocks on the beach near the end there, the last few… Few hundred years. It was a lot of ice. Like these big icebergs, or glaciers out on the water. Never seen anything like it.

Closing Statement: The remainder of the interview has been cut for brevity. D-19-4722 later requested that they be allowed to make contact with SCP-3376 again. This request was granted as part of testing to determine if repeat exposure affected the nature of the hallucination. Results inconclusive, pending review.

Addendum: By comparing the results of this and other exposure tests, and the contents of multiple hallucinations, it has been determined that contact with SCP-3376 induces images either from, or representative of the lead up to the Huronian Glaciation, approximately 2.4 billion years ago, currently thought to be caused by the oxygenation of the earth's early atmosphere by the ancestors of 'modern' cyanobacteria. Why an anomalous stromatolite that has been dated to have been no more than 5-6 thousand years old would contain such a 'recording' is, at this time, unknown. A dedicated search for other instances of SCP-3376 is currently pending approval.

Footnotes

1. Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic, oxygen producing bacteria thought responsible for converting Earth's early atmosphere into its current mix of oxygen and nitrogen.

2. These two brain structures are believed to be integral to cognition and visual perception respectively.