Much of what we know regarding how life—as we know it—came into existence is through the recovery of fossils from various sites in the word. The Chengjiang lagerstatte in Yunnan Province, China, is one such unique site containing very well-preserved fossils (also called the “Chengjiang fauna”), which include soft-bodied animals that normally do not get fossilized. Most of these fossils are 520 to 518 million years old, spanning a part of the Cambrian period when life on earth exploded in diversity, leading to a huge increase in number of species—a phenomenon called the “Cambrian explosion.” In a new study, two scientists who spent many years digging deeper into this field, including Dr. Degan Shu from Northwest University in Xi’an and Dr. Jian Han from Northwestern University in Shaanxi Xi’an, present an overview of their research on the Chengjiang fauna and emphasize its significance. These findings, which are published in Earth Science Frontiers, include significant contributions from Chinese paleontologists, including Prof Shu’s group, in collaboration with other international scientists.
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Source: Phys.org