Unique fossil site discovered in Wales reveals early life forms (from 462 Mya, some 50 million years later than the Burgess shale)

[essentialsaltes]

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tiny worms, starfish, sponges, barnacles and other creatures with no modern parallel discovered at a quarry in Wales are painting a picture of life on Earth 462 million years ago.

The Castle Bank fossil site near Llandrindod Wells in Powys is remarkable because of the time period it captures and because the fossils show soft tissue such as eyes, nerves, the gut and brain that are preserved as films of carbon in mudstone, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Monday.

Most of the 170 animals discovered so far from the fossil site were tiny (1-5 millimeters) and many were either completely soft-bodied when alive or had a tough skin or exoskeleton. The vast majority appear to be completely unknown species.

While other soft bodied creatures from the past have preserved in a similar way, most notably in the Burgess Shale deposits in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, Castle Bank dates from 50 million years later in the Middle Ordovician.

 

[Occams Barber]

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tiny worms, starfish, sponges, barnacles and other creatures with no modern parallel discovered at a quarry in Wales are painting a picture of life on Earth 462 million years ago.

The Castle Bank fossil site near Llandrindod Wells in Powys is remarkable because of the time period it captures and because the fossils show soft tissue such as eyes, nerves, the gut and brain that are preserved as films of carbon in mudstone, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Monday.

Most of the 170 animals discovered so far from the fossil site were tiny (1-5 millimeters) and many were either completely soft-bodied when alive or had a tough skin or exoskeleton. The vast majority appear to be completely unknown species.

While other soft bodied creatures from the past have preserved in a similar way, most notably in the Burgess Shale deposits in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, Castle Bank dates from 50 million years later in the Middle Ordovician.

So now it’s out​

There is no doubt​

Now science can confirm​

Your Grandad was a barnacle and grandma was a worm.​

​

​

Isn't it colossal​

You're descended from a fossil? ​

​

OB​

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​

 

[Mountainmike]

So in 450 million years ( assuming , despite our best efforts, the planet hasn’t gone up in smoke ) they will dig up a primitive skeleton ( perhaps with an essentialsaltes name bracelet), I wonder what they will say about you.. and the other primitive life forms of wales!

 

[USincognito]

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tiny worms, starfish, sponges, barnacles and other creatures with no modern parallel discovered at a quarry in Wales are painting a picture of life on Earth 462 million years ago.

The Castle Bank fossil site near Llandrindod Wells in Powys is remarkable because of the time period it captures and because the fossils show soft tissue such as eyes, nerves, the gut and brain that are preserved as films of carbon in mudstone, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Monday.

Most of the 170 animals discovered so far from the fossil site were tiny (1-5 millimeters) and many were either completely soft-bodied when alive or had a tough skin or exoskeleton. The vast majority appear to be completely unknown species.

While other soft bodied creatures from the past have preserved in a similar way, most notably in the Burgess Shale deposits in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, Castle Bank dates from 50 million years later in the Middle Ordovician.

I wonder if any of them will be far enough removed from the living things we know to to warrant classification in a new phylum.

 

[The Barbarian]

One of the guys doing the Burgess Shale said it got to the point that they'd think; "Oh (bleep), another new phylum."

 

[AV1611VET]

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tiny worms, starfish, sponges, barnacles and other creatures with no modern parallel discovered at a quarry in Wales are painting a picture of life on Earth 462 million years ago.

Let me see if I get this right:

From a quarry in Wales -- a QUARRY -- they find "creatures with no modern parallel".

Is that right?

What? some fifty or sixty feet down, they find life from 462 million years ago?

 

[essentialsaltes]

What? some fifty or sixty feet down, they find life from 462 million years ago?

Well, fossils of life, yes.

 

[AV1611VET]

Well, fossils of life, yes.

Have human skeletons ever been found deeper than sixty feet down?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Have human skeletons ever been found deeper than sixty feet down?

Probably. But human fossils/skeletons have not been found in rocks dated from 462 million years ago.

In 1815, William Smith made his famous map of the geology of Britain. One of the fascinating things is that you can see the different strata of rock tilted across the island from east to west, as in this cross section he prepared. On the west (er, left) is Wales -- you can see Mount Snowdon there as the highest peak. And more than a century after Smith did his literally groundbreaking work, we learned the age of these Welsh strata from the paleozoic era, up to 500-some million years old, which are filled with fossils only of paleo zoa - old life.

So no, apart from miners and quarrymen who have fallen to their deaths, we have not and will not find human fossils in these Welsh fossil beds. But it would be a great actual research effort for creationists to go looking for them. That's how you upend an established theory -- with evidence.

 

[AV1611VET]

Probably. But human fossils/skeletons have not been found in rocks dated from 462 million years ago.

Got it.

Date the fossils by the rocks, and the rocks by [whatever].

 

[The Barbarian]

Got it.

Date the fossils by the rocks, and the rocks by ...

Radioisotopes. And since the method has precisely dated the eruption that buried Pompeii, we know it works.

 

[The Barbarian]

From a quarry in Wales -- a QUARRY -- they find "creatures with no modern parallel".

Yes. More phyla that died out before the Cambrian.

What? some fifty or sixty feet down, they find life from 462 million years ago?

Yeah. How do you think we find them? Erosion and other processes remove overlaying material. Grand Canyon is an example. There are very few places on Earth where the entire geologic column still exists.

 

[AV1611VET]

Yes. More phyla that died out before the Cambrian.

Yeah. How do you think we find them? Erosion and other processes remove overlaying material. Grand Canyon is an example. There are very few places on Earth where the entire geologic column still exists.

Ya ... I was just going to mention the Grand Canyon.

It's what? over a mile deep?

Do the math.

If they find 462 million year old life sixty feet down, how old should they find life 6001 feet down?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Do the math.

It would be more useful to do the geology. William Smith gave us all a lovely picture of how rocks of different ages are exposed in different places. All carefully researched and presented long before radiometric dating or Darwin's theory of evolution.

 

[The Barbarian]

Ya ... I was just going to mention the Grand Canyon.

It's what? over a mile deep?

Do the math.

If they find 462 million year old life sixty feet down, how old should they find life 6001 feet down?

You're assuming that all erosion works at the same rate. Observably a false assumption.

 

[AV1611VET]

You're assuming that all erosion works at the same rate. Observably a false assumption.

I don't think the Grand Canyon was caused by erosion.

 

[Astrophile]

Ya ... I was just going to mention the Grand Canyon.

It's what? over a mile deep?

Do the math.

If they find 462 million year old life sixty feet down, how old should they find life 6001 feet down?

The Lower Palaeozoic rocks of Wales have been folded, uplifted, eroded, buried under later rocks, and have then been uplifted and exposed again by the erosion of the later rocks.

In geological terms, 6001 feet (1829 metres) is trivial; the Cambrian rocks of North Wales are up to 4600 metres (15,000') thick; and the Ordovician and Silurian are each up to 5600 metres (18,000') thick. If the rocks could be drilled to a depth of 6001' (1829 metres), the drill hole would probably end in Lower Ordovician rocks, in the region of 470 to 490 million years old, or Upper Cambrian rocks, about 500 million years old.

 

[Shemjaza]

I don't think the Grand Canyon was caused by erosion.

Direct deliberate miracle?

 

[AV1611VET]

Direct deliberate miracle?

Indeed.

Genesis 10:25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

In Peleg's time, the landmass of the earth went from one giant one (Pangaea), to five separate ones.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Ya ... I was just going to mention the Grand Canyon.

It's what? over a mile deep?

Do the math.

If they find 462 million year old life sixty feet down, how old should they find life 6001 feet down?

Disingenuous questions. Disingenuous math. Disingenuous conclusions.

Nobody needs your off-topic and disingenuous interjections in this thread about a cool new discovery.