ScienceDaily has a story about some spectacular new fossils from Morocco. These fossils are from the lower Fezouata formation, which dates to Ordovician. In the five years since its discovery, the Fezouata has revealed 160 new genera, with even more expected. Many of these animals are holdovers from the Cambian and were thought to be extinct long before this younger time period, about 20 million years younger. The original paper appeared in the Journal of the Geological Society on July 8th.
The Lower Fezouata formation has been revealing exciting discoveries about life in the Ordovician -- around 485 -- 444 million years ago -- since its discovery just five years ago.
'The Fezouata is extraordinarily significant' says Professor Derek Briggs of Yale University, co-author of a study published today in the Journal of the Geological Society. 'Animals typical of the Cambrian are still present in rocks 20 million years younger, which means there must be a cryptic record in between, which is not preserved.'
Over 160 genera have already been documented from the Fezouata, with much more expected to be found. They include animals which would have looked perfectly at home during the Cambrian: armoured lobopodians -- worm like creatures with spines on their backs and short, stubby legs, and anomalocaridids -- huge segmented animals with remarkable feeding limbs, which are some of the largest marine creatures of the time.
