EurekAlert reveals new evidence of an age long before the dinosaurs, a primeval world 470 million years ago when the world was ruled by giant swimming arthropods. Like, the same family as shrimp, lobsters, and crabs:
Early evidence from the site at Taichoute, once undersea but now a desert, records numerous large “free-swimming” arthropods.
More research is needed to analyse these fragments, but based on previously described specimens, the giant arthropods could be up to 2m long.
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They say Taichoute (considered part of the wider “Fezouata Biota”) opens new avenues for paleontological and ecological research.
“Everything is new about this locality – its sedimentology, paleontology, and even the preservation of fossils – further highlighting the importance of the Fezouata Biota in completing our understanding of past life on Earth,” said lead author Dr Farid Saleh, from the University of Lausanne and and Yunnan University.
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Fossils discovered in these rocks include mineralised elements (eg shells), but some also show exceptional preservation of soft parts such as internal organs, allowing scientists to investigate the anatomy of early animal life on Earth.
Animals of the Fezouata Shale, in Morocco’s Zagora region, lived in a shallow sea that experienced repeated storm and wave activities, which buried the animal communities and preserved them in place as exceptional fossils.
However, nektonic (or free-swimming) animals remain a relatively minor component overall in the Fezouata Biota.
The new study reports the discovery of the Taichoute fossils, preserved in sediments that are a few million years younger than those from the Zagora area and are dominated by fragments of giant arthropods.
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You can read more research on the Fezouata Biota here, in Nature: Scientific Reports.