Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

"Scientists say they have discovered a "stunning" trove of thousands of fossils on a river bank in China.

The fossils are estimated to be about 518 million years old, and are particularly unusual because the soft body tissue of many creatures, including their skin, eyes, and internal organs, have been "exquisitely" well preserved."  From this BBC news item.

The find is within a lagerstatte, a fine grained sediment in which fine detail, especially of soft tissue, is preserved. (Other famous  examples include the Burgess Shale and the Solnhofen limestone.) We can reasonably expect signifcant understanding to emerge from further study of the find, and for more samples to be recovered in future.

 

Posted
14 hours ago, peterwlocke said:

what can they apply this to?

Off the top of my head (with no assurance of accuracy)

  • Broaden our knowledge of soft bodied phyla in the Cambrian
  • Refine our understanding of evolutionary trajectories within the Cambrian explosion
  • Enlarge the number of known Cambrian families and genera
  • Identify developmental stages for some organisms
  • Deepen our understanding of Cambrian ecology
  • Better recognise the conditions necessary for the formation of lagerstatte deposits with a view to locating further examples

And I imagine the experts in the field have further, better examples.

Posted
1 hour ago, Intrigued said:

Off the top of my head (with no assurance of accuracy)

  • Broaden our knowledge of soft bodied phyla in the Cambrian
  • Refine our understanding of evolutionary trajectories within the Cambrian explosion
  • Enlarge the number of known Cambrian families and genera
  • Identify developmental stages for some organisms
  • Deepen our understanding of Cambrian ecology
  • Better recognise the conditions necessary for the formation of lagerstatte deposits with a view to locating further examples

And I imagine the experts in the field have further, better examples.

thanks. I should of thought of that thanks for the jump start.

  • 2 weeks later...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.