We are talking about the Cambridge explosion, which is believed to have occurred 538.8 million years ago.
American researchers have discovered that one of the mass extinctions occurred earlier than scientists expected. There is evidence that the Cambridge eruption occurred about 550 million years ago, during the Ediacaran period. Science Alert writes about it.
It has already been mentioned that many animals have soft bodies. Some of them look more like glued plant leaves. Some have some kind of shell.
Virginia Tech paleobiologist Scott Evans and his team have collected data on rare fossils of softer animal species from around the world since the Ediacaran period. This makes it clear that the sudden changes in biodiversity discovered earlier are not just sampling errors.
Soft body parts generally do not fossilize as easily as harder, more mineralized parts of the anatomy, so it can be assumed that the relative absence of soft-bodied animals in the late Ediacaran stages is simply the result of a conservation failure.
“Our team found a general increase in biodiversity between the early and middle Ediacaran period known as the Avalon (575-560 million years ago) and the White Sea period (560-550 million years ago) . We find significant differences in diet, lifestyle, ecological level and maximum body size between the Avalon and the White Sea communities,” the article said.
Between these two time periods, more small animals appeared. They feed on the microbial mats that dominate the seafloor.
“All types of diets and lifestyles suffered similar losses, and only 14 genera are found in the nama out of 70 known groups from an earlier White Sea stage. If more newly evolved species are replaced, there will be also of difference. between new and old species. “Temporal coincidence. The team argues that this has not been observed, except for changing biotics. The reduction in diversity between these communities is indicative of extinction, with a percentage of lost genera comparable to the percentage experienced by marine invertebrates during the Big Five mass extinctions,” said the authors. study author.
It can be recalled that plant growth has accelerated in Antarctica due to climate change, indicating a serious threat to the fragile ecosystem of the region.
Climatologist predicted the date of the next end of the world
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Source: korrespondent
