The Mesoproterozoic Huangqikou Formation (ca. 1.6 Ga) in the HelanMountains,NW China,consists mainly of quartz sandstone. In the lower part of this unit, abundant microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS) are present, with nine distinctive types that can be grouped in to three genetic categories including mat growth, mat destruction and mat decay structures. These structures are closely associated with herringbone, swaley, and highangle planar cross stratification, ripple cross lamination, ripple marks, and mud cracks, suggesting microbial mat colonization and growth in shallow subtidal to supratidal environments with moderate to high hydraulic energy. The presence of mat growth structures and reworked mat chips in crossbedded sandstone indicates microbial mat colonization in high energy sandy substrates where biostabilization of mobile sediments prevented a complete removal of microbial mats and translucent quartz sand allowed microbial mats to grow out of the sediment burial. The association of MISS with mud cracks and ripple marks indicates that microbial mat growth in intermittently exposed silty and muddy substrates. These MISS are similar to those found in modern peritidal siliciclastic environments where periodic low or nondeposition allowed microbes (most likely cyanobacteria)to grow into thick microbial mats and matgenerated organic matter decay resulted in gas release and escape features. However, the MISS structures in the early Mesoproterozoic North China platform are widespread. The plethora of MISS from the Huangqikou Formation is present in coeval stratigraphic units including the Dahongyu Formation (Pt2) near Beijing, hundreds of kilometers away from the Helan Mountains. The widespread distribution and diversity of MISS in the lower Mesoproterozoic North China Platform thus indicate that microbes (particularly cyanobacteria) thrived in Mesoproterozoic peritidal siliciclastic environments. The abundance of MISS in sediments with mud cracks implies that, by the time of early Mesoproterozoic, microbes may have started to colonize the terrestrial substrates. Comparing the abundance and diversity of eukaryotes with the abundance of MISS in the Mesoproterozoic North China platform suggested that the widespread and diversity of MISS may have recorded the great thriving of cyanobacteria, an event that may have had significant influences on the oceanic redox changes, atmospheric oxygen increases and the evolution of eukaryotic microorganisms and macroalgae. The study also suggests that the Huangqikou Formation in NW China is approximately equivalent to the Dahongyu Formation in North China, both of them were formed in a slowly subsiding tectono paleogeographical background resulted from the extension and rifting of the North China Platform in response to the breakup of the Paleoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent.