
Newfound fossils in China highlight a dizzying diversity of Cambrian life - echevil
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/china-fossil-cache-cambrian-explosion
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debatem1
Stupid question, but there have been a number of high profile fossil forgeries
in China over the last few years and my understanding is that these are
largely done by destroying other fossils of the type to fool tests that rely
on the chemical composition being wrong. Is that easier or harder to get away
with things like this that have few close parallels?

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yorwba
I think it's kind of hard to destroy unremarkable fossils so they not only 1)
appear as unknown taxa 2) and are well-preserved, but also 3) create a
complete Lagerstätte where palaeontologists can just go and dig up more of
them.

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nyc111
Does this mean that this area was a sea (or a lake) in the Cambrian where
these creatures lived?

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maze-le
It was part of the ocean. The Eurasian landmass was not yet established and in
large parts submerged. The bulk of the landmass of what is now central/eastern
Asia developed during the late carboniferous / early permian era, due to
colliding tectonic plates that would form the continent of pangaea.

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ximeng
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cswmqx](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cswmqx)
\- More here from 07:40. Amazing stuff

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4FNET7
I'm impressed by the jellyfish fossil.

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ncmncm
I'm amazed at how recognizable so many of these critters are, half a billion
years on.

