Researchers from Northwest University in Xi'an, China, Virginia Tech, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the discovery of the most ancient plant and animal fossils found to date in the journal Nature and at the EurekaAlert web site on February 16, 2011.
Seaweed, eukaryotes (the earliest form of organism with complex multicellular structures), algae, worms, and fifteen other species were identified in shale formations in Lantian, a small town in Anhui Province of South China.
The fossils date to 600 million years ago.
The uniqueness of the find is the age and diversity of life in a small geographic area that had developed fairly rapidly after the earth had thawed from the greatest and longest ice age in its history about 635 million years ago.. The life forms did not exist for long. They all appear to have become extinct rather quickly.
The crux of the mystery is the development of an oxygen rich zone on earth at that time that could support such a variety of plant and animal life.
To date there is no concrete explanation as to why this little ecosystem developed in this area of China nor why it died out.
The researchers have plans to examine the fossils and the area around Lantain for more clues.
Paper
"An Early Ediacaran Assemblage of Macroscopic and Morphologically Differentiated Eukaryotes,"
Authors
Xunlai Yuan and Zhe Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shuhai Xiao of Virginia Tech; Chuanming Zhou, also of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Hong Hua of Northwest University in Xi'an
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