Qingjiang biota
The Qingjiang biota is a recently discovered treasure-trove of fossils. This lagerstätte of Cambrian period fossils is in China. The fossil site is in Hubei Province near the Danshui River.
In 2019, more than 20,000 fossil specimens were collected. They included many soft bodied animals such as jellyfish, sea anemones, sponges, arthropods and algae and various kinds of aquatic worms.
In some specimens the internal body structures was preserved with fossilised soft tissues such as mouths, guts, and eyes.
The remains are dated as about 518 million years ago. About half the species found were previously unknown.[1][2][3]
Qingjiang Biota Media
Restoration of an unnamed Qingjiang medusa
References
- ↑ "Huge fossil discovery made in China's Hubei province". BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-47667880. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
- ↑ "'Mindblowing' haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/21/mindblowing-haul-of-fossils-over-500m-years-old-unearthed-in-china. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
- ↑ Fu Dongjing; et al. (2019). "The Qingjiang biota: a Burgess Shale–type fossil Lagerstätte from the early Cambrian of South China". Science. 363 (6433): 1338–1342. Bibcode:2019Sci...363.1338F. doi:10.1126/science.aau8800. PMID 30898931. S2CID 85448914.