Shocking! 150 New Species Unearthed in Wales in Fossil Find That Shocks and Terrifies!

Archaeologists have discovered a marine archaeological site from the Middle Ordovician Period dating back 462 million years at Castle Bank, Wales, according to a new study published Monday.

The site contains 150 different fossilized species, many of which had never been discovered before this find.

A peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution details some of the expected fossil finds. The fossils discovered

The site is believed to be beautiful, as soft tissue and many complete organisms were preserved in good condition. In some of the specimens, organs and digestive systems are still completely intact, which is extremely important. This allowed researchers to gain unprecedented insight into the evolution of marine life.

Many of the fossils discovered come from the Cambrian period, which was 485-542 million years ago, the oldest period in which animal fossils can be identified.

All of the fossils appeared in post-Cambrian rocks, meaning that paleontologists are limited in their understanding of how marine life evolved from the Cambrian to the post-Cambrian period. Cambrian rocks were home to the earliest diversified fossilized species and are credited with the first appearance of most animal phyla that have fossil records.

The newly discovered species include opabiniids, protoarthropods with long noses, wiwaxiids, thought to be an early relative of mollusks that are armoured with scales, a creature thought to be an early ancestor of barnacles and cephalocarid shrimp. Of the discovered species, most are considered very small, measuring between 1 and 3 mm.

One of the most important finds, a newly discovered type of shale fauna, will fill a gap in scientific understanding about the change from Cambrian fauna to Paleozoic fauna and the shift from ecosystems to the diversified ecology seen today.

The Ordovician period

The Ordovician lasted about 45 million years. During this period, the area north of the tropics was almost entirely ocean, and most of the world’s land was concentrated in the southern supercontinent Gondwana, according to UC Berkeley. Sea levels were up to 600 meters higher than today.

Archaeologists have discovered various marine invertebrates, including graptolites, trilobites, brachiopods and conodonts from the period