Evolution of Earth and Life Term Paper Edits

Paleontologists Discover 518 Million Year Old Fossil Site

Palaeontology has been considered as a scientific study of geologic part of life that involves research work on plants and animals ancient fossils comprising those of microscopic size and found reserved in rocks. However, according to biology, the concept of Paleontology has been concerned with all the aspects of the fossils related to ancient life. It includes structures, taxonomic relationships, evolutionary patterns, interrelationships and geographic distribution according to their environments. The essay comprises a review of information about the field of Paleontology that involves its basic information closely related to the field and a recent scientific discovery to support the research work with peer-reviewed scientific journals. For this purpose, a peer-reviewed journal Article “The Qingjiang biota—A Burgess Shale-type fossil Lagerstätte from the early Cambrian of South China” has been selected in which a recent research work on the discovery of Qingjiang Biota fossil in China has recently been revealed by the palaeontologists (Fu, 2019).

The most recent Palaeontology research work has allowed scientists to explode diversities in an animal’s life about 500 million years ago (Fu, 2019). According to the study revealed in the article, palaeontologists have recently discovered an old Cambrian fossil site in China. It was a fossil namely Qingjiang Biota that has been found closely related Burgess Shale-type fossil that has existed in the early Cambrian life of south China (Fu, 2019). According to the research works, the animal's life has been explored in different forms as they were having diversity among them. Recently, Dongjing Fu has discovered that Qingjiang Biota a fossil that contains a variety of specimens from which the maximum of the specimens has already been described in different palaeontology researches (Fu, 2019). However, this scientific study revealed to elucidate the diversification and biological innovations during the early period of the region (Sci News, 2019).

According to the scientists, the sedimentary deposit of Burgess Shale fossil has provided the best prove for deciphering the confirmation of Cambrian explosion and biotic patterns after being studied (Fu, 2019). They reported the sedimentary deposit of Qingjiang Biota for about 518 million years ago from south China which has been consisting dominations in soft body taxa such as worms and jellyfish from a distal setting of the shelf. The scientists revealed that Qingjiang Biota has been distinguishing itself from the rest of the fossils by having the contents of preservative pristine carbonaceous of the features comprising labile organic compounds. These features of labile organic compounds were having a very upgraded portion of taxa that have been making it 53% of the total. Moreover, preliminary taxonomic diversity of the fossils suggested that it was having the features to rival Burgess Shale and Chengjiang biotas (Fu, 2019). While defending the other aspects of Qingjiang Biota, scientists also revealed that it comprises a very high ratio of cnidarians having polypoid and medusoid forms. The fossils have resembled with the external features of abundant larval or juvenile forms and extant kinorhynchs. According to the study, the distinct composition and identification of the fossil will open up new horizons for the evolution of ecosystems found in Cambrian across environmental gradients (Fu, 2019).

The discovery of Qingjiang Biota described the ancient rivals of Cambrian sites such as Chengjiang fossil and Burgess Shale of British Columbia in the province of China Yunnan (Sci News, 2019). According to Cambrian Explosion, the early life of animals on earth has been found in more evolutionary events and diversities that will be able to graft the early branches of major animal phyla into three categories of ancient animal life. The revelation about the ancient fossils in Cambrian explosion can be better described from the fossils recorded at sites where geological norms of this ancient era have been made preserved from years. The discovery of the fossil Qingjiang Biota has been considered as one of the most significant revelations about fossils in the last 100 years. Initial news regarding the site of Qingjiang Biota fossil revealed that 4,351 of the specimens had been examined after collection, from which a total of 101 species had been identified among which 53 were new to science (Sci News, 2019).

The papers that have been published on Qingjiang Biota fossils in journal news articles explore that, Paleontologist Dongjing Fu of Xi’an’s from the Northwest University of China and his colleagues has described the Cambrian Period fossils collection as being 10 million years older (Black, 2019). However, the way fossil has been formed during the period was nearly similar to those fossils that have been found in North America. These are dark fossils appeared in high visibility grey stones. Though the fossils of Qingjiang Biota has now been preserved for further study and discoveries about the great fossil. The external features of Qingjiang Biota have been found similar to shrimp-like arthropods, jellyfish, trilobites and tadpole-like animals. According to palaeontologists, Qingjiang Biota is a species that has never been seen before. However, special features of Qingjiang Biota has made it special as compared to the other discoveries made in the past (Black, 2019). “What makes the Qingjaing special compared to other Cambrian sites with soft parts preserved, such as the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang Biota [in southern China], is the fact that there is over fifty per cent entirely new taxa of animals and algae that are previously unknown to science,” says University of Lausanne paleontologist Allison Daley (Black, 2019). She further revealed that the fossils of Qingjiang Biota were of truly exceptional quality that further preserved the anatomy of species without natural disturbances due to the fossilization process.

Contrary to other fossil troves of Cambrian, the fossils of Qingjiang biota has appeared to have a high proportion of comb jellies, cnidarians and jellyfish, these are also called as ctenophores. These species, especially the comb jellies, are extremely rare and does not found so easily in the ancient fossils to be studied (Gramling, 2019). Study of fossils like Qingjiang biota has opened up the paths to answer long-standing debates about their shapes and internal features for a palaeontologist. Rather, sponges and comb jellies have been considered most primitive fellow species on Qingjiang biota family tree. But scientists revealed that they expect the species of Qingjiang biota will be having more advanced features among them (Gramling, 2019).

Contrary to the high taxonomic diversity of the feature, Qingjiang biota fossils are being characterized as near to pristine preservation of soft structured bodied animals comprising larval and juvenile forms. Just like worm cuticles, arthropod and jellyfishes the species was having soft-tissue features as guts, eyes and gills (Sci News, 2019). According to the news, the 4351 specimens that have been collected already from different sites will make up the ways to deeply study ancient animals, their diversification and features according to their ecosystem in which they were living at that time (Sci News, 2019). The fossil of Qingjiang Biota has added a strange wrinkle to the ongoing fossiliferous discussions about the Cambrian explosion. This was a very anonymous diversification procedure of life during the Cambrian Period, but palaeontologists did not lose hope and are still discovering whether the evolutionary event of that time was real, a sudden change or if it was an ordinary looking at the same style because of incomplete sampling of fossils. While the discovery of Qingjiang Biota doesn’t necessarily resolve the previous queries, it has added a site of amazing evolutionary radiation during the lives of Cambrians.

According to an article, the discovery of Qingjiang biota substantially added up the knowledge of scientists about the early Cambrian period (Greshko, 2019). That was a time when the life of animals had been exploded in its expandable form of spectacular fashion about 10 million years ago. Qingjiang biota fossils had been formed due to complex ecosystems of that time that had been sprung up all around the world. Qingjiang biota had might be teeming with the species that formed the basis of the major animals grouping today according to their diversity. It is believed that there were many factors that triggered these unprecedented radiations of the majority of species which further explored new shallow marine species for the evolution of DNA (Greshko, 2019) . It was considered as a fact that the age of Qingjiang biota has been the same as of the age of Chengjiang Biota. However, there were many previously unknown species that indicated that Cambrian hosted more strange organisms beyond the imagination of most of the Paleontologists. The diversity of life in ancient times would be a sign of much flurry evolutionary activity that further explored other species at the sites like Qingjiang biota and the Burgess Shale. Thus, the research of Dongjing Fu and his colleagues has been considered a preliminary report that explored many species like Qingjiang biota that are yet to be named and studied. The palaeontologists noted that the geologic formation and the ecosystem in which Qingjiang biota resided in ancient times are being found in other places of China as well, that could be a sign of yielding additional fossils as well (Black, 2019)

To conclude, the findings of Qingjiang biota has enriched the view of early animal views to the science of the world and palaeontology. The discovery revealed really remarkable views about ancient simplest animals for the palaeontologist. One of the most remarkable things about the Qingjiang biota discovery is about the pristine condition of many of its collected specimens. However, the fossils of Qingjiang biota has been found rare but the fossils are not affected by the impacts of the time period. These fossils clearly elaborate the soft tissues of animals like gills, tentacles and eyes as well (Sci News, 2019). The discovery of Qingjiang biota has promised new horizons for the evolution of Cambrian ecosystems across time and space. Palaeontologist and scientist are now having pristine fossil records of ancient Cambrian life that will further explore the diversity of these organisms as well.

References

Fu, D. T. (2019). Science. The Qingjiang biota—A Burgess Shale–type fossil Lagerstätte from the early Cambrian of South China, 1338-1342.

Black, R. (2019, March 21). Fossil Treasure Trove of Ancient Animals Unearthed in China. Retrieved April 19, 2019, from Smithsonian.com: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fossil-treasure-trove-ancient-animals-unearthed-china-180971769/

Gramling, C. (2019, March 21). Newfound fossils in China highlight a dizzying diversity of Cambrian life. Retrieved April 19, 2019, from ScienceNews: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/china-fossil-cache-cambrian-explosion

Greshko, M. (2019, March 21). Spectacular new fossil bonanza captures explosion of early life. Retrieved April 19, 2019, from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/03/treasure-trove-of-spectacular-fossils-found-in-china/

Sci News. (2019, March 26). Paleontologists Discover 518 Million-Year-Old Fossil Site in China. Retrieved April 19, 2019, from Sci News: http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/qingjiang-biota-07026.html