New Fossils Discovered

Paleontologists have recently discovered thousands of fossils at a site in China, including some of the best preserved fossils ever recorded. The fossils can be dated back 518 million years to the beginning of the Cambrian explosion.

The reason that these fossils are unusual is because many of the specimens’ soft tissue was very well preserved. Most fossils are only preservations of hard tissue like bones, but the preservation of soft tissue means that many of these fossils contain remnants of skin, eyes, and internal organs, as well as the skeleton of the organism.

More than that, scientists consider the fossils to be so amazing because among the 4,300-odd specimens that have been analyzed so far, more than half of them are previously undiscovered species.

Professor Xingliang Zhang from China’s Northwest University was one of the fieldwork leaders. He says that these fossils will become a “very important source in the study of the early origins of creatures.”

The fossils found contain specimens of worms, jellyfish, sea anemones, arthropods, molluscs, and algae. Over 20,000 specimens were collected from the site, but paleontologists have yet to examine and analyze all of them.

There are a few good things about having fossils with soft tissue. For one, it gives us an insight into the anatomy and physiology of these organisms, most of which are some of the most basal animals of the phylogenetic tree of life. It allows us to really see the structures of their body, the way their organs functioned, and the way their bodies moved.

It also allows us to analyze the DNA of these ancient organisms. Many fossils do not contain DNA evidence of the animals or plants they once were. However, DNA can be found in the soft tissue of animals. Typically, the only time scientists are able to analyze DNA from fossils is when the animal had been preserved since (and often before) it died millions of years ago. The most well known example of this would be bugs getting trapped in amber, which should sound familiar to everyone who’s seen Jurassic Park. Another type of preservation can be done with ice, such as with the complete wooly mammoth fossils that have been found from the last ice age.

This type of fossil is created and these specimens are so well preserved because the body is encased before it has the chance to decompose. Many times, the organism died because of the encasement. In the case of the Jurassic Park-esque amber fossils, the organisms got stuck in tree sap and couldn’t get out, and then we found the solidified amber after millions of years. In the case of these new fossils, Zhang says that they must have been “rapidly buried in sediment” due to a storm.

These new specimens are extremely exciting to many researchers because it provides a deeper insight into both past and present biodiversity. Uncovering things about the past often reveals things about the present and future. Most of the major branches of animals were established during the Cambrian explosion, and these new specimens may yield interesting information about the origins of modern life.