Couple unearths one of world's greatest fossil finds in mid-Wales

[muriel_volestrangler]

A bit of hyperbole in the headline, I suspect, but it does sounds important:

Now researchers believe the site could help plug gaps in scientific understanding of how evolution proceeded after the Cambrian explosion – the period when the ancestors of most modern animals are believed to have evolved. It could even prove to be as important as the Burgess Shale in Canada that preserves one of the world’s first complex marine ecosystems, experts say.

The Welsh site, known as Castle Bank, dates from the Middle Ordovician period, about 460m-70m years ago. It represents a community of diverse and mostly diminutive (1mm to 5mm in body length) marine organisms that existed at a time when ocean covered what is now mid-Wales.
...
The site is important because it gives us a new window into how life was evolving at the time. The Cambrian explosion, which occurred between 540m and 485m years ago, was a period when many new and complex life forms arose. But by 400m years ago, almost all of these creatures had disappeared, eventually replaced by the ancestors of many modern animals. The Castle Bank fossils could help to bridge that gap, providing an insight into how life was evolving at a time when there was virtually no life on land, but animals and algae were thriving in the seas.
...
Although other Ordovician fossil sites exist, most are older and preserve only a limited fauna, with few entirely soft-bodied animals. “Here, it seems, we’ve got everything,” said Botting.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/01/couple-unearths-one-of-worlds-greatest-fossil-finds-in-mid-wales

A Middle Ordovician Burgess Shale-type fauna from Castle Bank, Wales (UK)

Burgess Shale-type faunas are critical to our understanding of animal evolution during the Cambrian, giving an unrivalled view of the morphology of ancient organisms and the ecology of the earliest animal-dominated communities. Rare examples in Lower Ordovician strata such as the Fezouata Biota illustrate the subsequent evolution of ecosystems but only from before the main phase of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Later Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten are not directly comparable with the Burgess Shale-type faunas as they do not represent diverse, open-shelf communities, limiting our ability to track ecological development through the critical Ordovician biodiversification interval. Here we present the Castle Bank fauna: a highly diverse Middle Ordovician Burgess Shale-type fauna from Wales (UK) that is directly comparable with the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang biotas i n p al ae oe nv ir onment and preservational style. The deposit includes animals with morphologies similar to the iconic Cambrian taxa Opabinia, Yohoia and Wiwaxia, combined with early examples of more derived groups such as barnacles. Many taxa such as kinorhynchs show the small sizes typical of modern faunas, illustrating post-Cambrian miniaturization. Castle Bank provides a new perspective on early animal evolution, revealing the next chapter in ecosystem development following the Chengjiang, Burgess Shale a n d F ez ou ata biotas.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02038-4.epdf?sharing_token=gEgOdyS2OlQuidd5cIrKdNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PUFSwF_oB6j2SHmtUFr31zYSScSsTJeRvbMCT-3IJLlHDX3WQeXu-oRRaZG0TFfPN2B083e-WlJkuODzcYPUakU4sQcTL31XuV_VEeZPzRIR2x0qFW8QsYkgzvW5RYCkIbykHnyhs8ynhgpi6ZYglTst8yWREDUzU-eF-KQInVHtJn4p0JF8utVUcMVTLwUKyaNwRK_To_tc0BDoly3mJMRUNfJjCd1R2iC0kIZdVY9qGq_nTGCMg0bSnf_kDD8NVHf6n2Jv3xvzcPPKE6U4_N1rWdk-ZSxOzwigsvmeqE3A%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.theguardian.com

[AZ8theist]

1. Boy, I hate the phrase "Explosion"

It lends credence to the creationist BS.

Estimates of the Cambrian PERIOD are upwards of 30 MILLION YEARS.

That's nearly half the time between us and the dinosaur extinction.

[SorellaLaBefana]

3. Recall what Huxley Editorialzed in Reply to Bishop "Soapy Sam" Wilberforce

Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as strangled snakes beside that of Heracles, and history records that wherever science and dogmatism have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed, if not annihilated; scotched if not slain.

[AZ8theist]

4. Great quote. I have to look that up.

And welcome to DU!!!

[SorellaLaBefana]

2. More Discussion of this Unbalancing Unearthing

Incredibly Preserved Fossils Show How Weird The Sea Was 462 Million Years Ago

Brains, eyes, and digestive organs. Those were just some of the soft tissue surprises waiting for researchers processing 462-million-year-old specimens retrieved from Castle Bank Quarry in Wales, UK. The Castle Bank Community, as the collection of ancient marine oddities is known, demonstrates remarkable diversity as well as preservation, contributing more than 170 new species to science with the help of crowdfunding.

Exceptional specimens such as these are sometimes called Burgess Shale-types after a location in Canada where fossils were found with soft tissues preserved, extending our understanding of the evolution of animal groups. Typically, they’re limited to the Cambrian period that stretched between 541 and 485 million years ago, but on occasion, science is treated to an extra old glut of gorgeous fossils.

That could be said of the Castle Bank Community which dates back to 462 million years ago, landing them in the Middle Ordovician epoch. They are mostly small in size, sitting between 1 to 5 millimeters in total body length (0.04 to 0.2 inches)...

https://www.iflscience.com/incredibly-preserved-fossils-show-how-weird-the-sea-was-462-million-years-ago-68688

[Random Boomer]

5. Despite your skepticism, yes, it's every bit that important

It's an amazing find. It may not seem as dramatic as huge dinosaur bones, but it's from a critical period of life on earth.

[Backseat Driver]

6. How about how it all began:

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-newly-electrical-cells-biological-chemistry.html

Newly discovered electrical activity within cells could change the way researchers think about biological chemistry

[snip]
"It could also provide a clue as to how the first life on Earth harnessed the energy needed to arise."
[snip]


Ahhh...better living through chemistry! Too mysterious for me, I guess. Magic? If one adds a dye into the experiment, could it change what is then observed? IDK, the only "condensate" I half-way understand is within the science of meteorology--courtesy NOAA/weather/climate..."I've looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow, it's clouds illusions I recall, I reall don't know clouds at all."

LOL, some of my more recent ancestors were Welsh.