The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
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Fossils of sea creatures squiggly like aliens.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Paleontologists in England discovered a number of sea creatures curvy like alien. They found fossil creature-sea creatures from era Jurassic it’s under a limestone quarry in the Cotswolds region.
Fossil sea creatures similar alien it is one of tens of thousands of findings fossil marine invertebrates –the so-called echinodermata— found at that location. Fossil–fossil it is well-preserved in all stages of their life cycle, the researchers said in a statement. Echinodermata In Greek it means “porcupine skin” and includes the ancient ancestors of modern sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and frilled-legged sea lilies.
But sadly, just when things were booming, the thriving seabed community met a catastrophic end. There was a mysterious catastrophe—perhaps a landslide triggered by an earthquake—that struck and buried the animals for 167 million years.
What we got here is some kind of Pompeii Jurassic, said Neville Hollingworth, a hunter fossil amateur who discovered the grave site fossil–fossil it was while hiking with his wife.
“[Makhluk-makhluk itu] tried to protect themselves, took a lowered position by pulling their arms, but all in vain,” Tim Ewin, paleontologist and senior curator at the Natural History Museum of London told BBC. “They were pushed into the sediment and buried alive.”
This site is from the period Jurassic middle, about 200 million to 145 million years ago. It was a period when giant sauropods and bloodthirsty theropod dinosaurs ruled the land.
At that time also life at sea was in transition. As many as half of all marine species had died out in the event of extinction by the end of the Triassic period, and the echinodermata The skinny arm then evolved like crazy to fill the void.
Also Read: Archaeologists Find ‘Lost Golden City of Luxor’, Egyptian Version of Pompeii
The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
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Fossils of these sea creatures from the Jurassic era were found at a site called
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Thanks to the presence of five pairs of spiny arms radiating out from their bodies, echinoderms then became very successful at grabbing food that passed through them, according to the researchers. Some echinoderms, such as starfish and sea cucumbers, can walk on the ocean floor. Some other echinoderms, such as sea lilies, anchor in place and wait for food to come to them.
The seabed site found was likely quite shallow, perhaps only about 65 to 130 feet or 20 to 40 meters deep, the team said. The site is located in present-day central England, but back in the mid-Jurassic, it was probably closer to what is now North Africa and the water was much warmer than it is today.
Also Read: Why Are Only Birds Remaining From the Era of the Dinosaur Extinction?
While it’s impossible to know what exactly is destroying this huge community, researchers are grateful for whatever it is. If not preserved under the mud that covered them, these ancient creatures would likely have been devoured by scavengers at sea, leaving little to learn, the team said.
With these thousands of diverse specimens available to examine, the researchers hope to learn more about the evolution of echinoderms during the Jurassic period, including describing several new species. In addition to obtaining fossils of these ancient marine animals, the research team also found samples of wood and pollen preserved in the rocks, which could reveal more details about climate change at the time.
“We will describe in detail the new species and describe the variability of the plants and animals that we found at the site,” Ewin said in a statement. Live Science.
Also Read: The Enormous Eruption of Vesuvius, It Only Takes 15 Minutes to Destroy Pompeii
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