Fossils from the Fezouata Shale. From left to right, a non-mineralized arthropod (Marrellomorpha), a palaeoscolecid worm and a trilobites. Credit: Emmanuel Martin
Phys.org has a story about some interesting arthropod fossils from Morocco. The fossils date to the Ordovician Period about 470 million years ago. The locality holds new species and while some are fragmentary, the fragments suggest large animals, maybe up to 2 meters long. The research was published in Science Advances.
Discoveries at a major new fossil site in Morocco suggest giant arthropods—relatives of modern creatures including shrimps, insects and spiders—dominated the seas 470 million years ago.
Early evidence from the site at Taichoute, once undersea but now a desert, records numerous large "free-swimming" arthropods.
More research is needed to analyse these fragments, but based on previously described specimens, the giant arthropods could be up to 2m long.
An international research team say the site and its fossil record are very different from other previously described and studied Fezouata Shale sites from 80km away.
They say Taichoute (considered part of the wider "Fezouata Biota") opens new avenues for paleontological and ecological research.
"Everything is new about this locality—its sedimentology, paleontology, and even the preservation of fossils—further highlighting the importance of the Fezouata Biota in completing our understanding of past life on Earth," said lead author Dr. Farid Saleh, from the University of Lausanne and and Yunnan University.
