Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Worm-like Animals Tell Story of Ancient Oxygen

Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Worm-like Animals Tell Story of Ancient Oxygen
Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:56:00 -0600

Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China.

Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Virginia Tech in the United States and ...

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