- 3206 - FOSSILS - well preserved prehistoric life? 500,000,000 years ago before my time there was life in the oceans. “Animal” life and “plant” life, the earliest definitions of life, existed in the oceans.
---------------------- 3206 - FOSSILS - well preserved prehistoric life?
- Scientists know little about how these prehistoric animals and algae developed. A newly discovered fossil deposit near Kunming, China, may hold the keys to understanding how these organisms laid the foundations for life on land and at sea that we have today.
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- The fossil deposit is called the “Haiyan Lagerstätt”, and it contains an exceptionally preserved evidence of early vertebrates and other rare, soft-bodied organisms, more than 50% of which are in the larval and juvenile stages of development.
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- These fossils were to the “Cambrian” geologic period approximately 518 million years ago and providing researchers with 2,846 specimens so far, the deposit is the oldest and most diverse found to date.
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- The researchers identified 118 species, including 17 new species, in the “lagerstätte” which is a sedimentary deposit of extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation that sometimes includes preserved soft tissues.
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- The species include the ancestors of modern-day insects and crustaceans, worms, trilobites, algae, sponges and early vertebrates related to jawless fish. The researchers also found eggs and an abundance of rare juvenile fossils with appendages still intact and their internal soft tissues visible.
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- The specimens are so well-preserved that they are revealing body parts. There are preserved details like 3D eyes, features that have never really been seen before, especially in such early deposits.
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- Scientists can use CAT scanning on these 3D features to reconstruct the animals and extract even more information from the fossils.
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- The lagerstätte contains several event beds, or layers in the sediment where the fossils are found. Each layer represents a single burial event. All species identified in the study are present in the lowest layer, with subsequent layers containing diverse species, but not to the extent of the lowest one.
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- The researchers think these intervals could represent boom and bust periods in the marine community. Many species might have come to the area located in deeper waters toward the center of the Kunming Gulf seeking protection from strong ocean currents.
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- However, a change in oxygen levels or storm events that caused sediment to flow down a slope and bury everything in its path may have caused these extinctions.
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- The abundance of juvenile fossils suggests that the Haiyan Lagerstätte could have been a paleonursery. The species found in the lagerstätte may have chosen to reproduce there due to the protection it provided from predators.
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- Could these worms and jellyfish and bugs have developed something as sophisticated as a paleonursery to raise their young? Whatever the case may be, it's fascinating to be able to parallel this behavior to that of modern animals.
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- These fossils will give us more information on their relationships to modern animals. We will see if how these animals develop today is similar to how they developed 500 million years ago, or if something has changed throughout time.
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- By conducting geochemical analyses on the specimens and the sediments could help to recreate the environment and climate during the time that this lagerstätte was deposited.
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- The fossils will also allow the researchers to study how animals behaved 500 million years ago when the world was a bit warmer than today. In this deposit are the ancestors to most modern animals, both marine and terrestrial.
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------------------------ See other Reviews about the oldest fossils:
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- 1351 - Animals that are 570 Million Years Old? Science believes it has discovered fossils in South China and in Australia that represent the oldest animal life on Earth. These fossils date back 570,000,000 years ago.
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- July 2, 2021 FOSSILS - well preserved prehistoric life? 3200
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