Traces of organisms aged 540 million years have been found in the Krasnoyarsk Territory

Traces of organisms aged 540 million years have been found in the Krasnoyarsk Territory
Traces of organisms aged 540 million years have been found in the Krasnoyarsk Territory
Anonim

Employees of the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics named after A. A. Trofimuka SB RAS investigates fossil traces of ancient soft-bodied organisms.

Scientists have discovered fossils in rock outcrops on the left bank of the Sukharikha River (a right tributary of the Yenisei River near the city of Igarka), which flows through the northwest of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. These studies will help scientists understand how life developed at the junction of two important geological periods: Vendian (635-541 Ma) and Cambrian (541-485 Ma).

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a - the Siberian platform and the location of the studied finds (the triangle shows a fragment shown in detail in Fig. b); b - the geographical position of the section where the finds were made

The Sukharikha River is located on the Igarsk Uplift, which is of exceptional interest for science, since the Sukharikha Formation contains one of the most complete and continuous sections of the Vendian and Cambrian transitional deposits. It was at this turn, about 540 million years ago, that the Cambrian explosion took place - a sharp increase in the number of biological species. Organisms with a mineral skeleton, as well as arthropods, chordates and molluscs, appeared on Earth.

The finds made by scientists from the Institute of Geological and Geological Exploration of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are located in rocks about 540 million years old and may be important for the reconstruction of the development of ecosystems during the Cambrian explosion. Having examined the prints, the staff of the Institute revealed the peculiarities of the behavior of fossil creatures and the conditions of their habitation.

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Finds made by scientists of INGG SB RAS on the Igarsk Uplift

So, ancient organisms lived in vertical or slightly curved burrows - some of these "passages" resemble the letter U in shape. Such tracks can be 1-2 cm wide and 15-20 cm long. The creatures who made them lived in shallow water: they burrowed into the ground and sifted through the suspension and sediment in search of nutrients. It is believed that such traces could have been left by annelids (annelids) or crustaceans.

Taking into account the high density of finds in a relatively small area, the Institute's experts concluded that organisms that were vertically burrowing into the ground were actively exploring shallow water even at the earliest stages of the Cambrian explosion, in the Late Vendian.

In the future, the employees of INGG SB RAS are planning to continue work on the Igarsky uplift.

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