FfFfFfFF 58,174 Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 Palaeontologist Tim Ewin is standing in a quarry, recalling the calamity that's written in the rocks under his mud-caked boots. "They tried to protect themselves, adopting the stress position of pulling their arms in," he continues. "But it was all in vain; you can see where their arms got snagged open, right up to the crown. They were pushed into the sediment and buried alive." The misfortune that struck this place 167 million years ago has delivered to him an extraordinary collection of fossil animals in what is unquestionably one of the most important Jurassic dig sites ever discovered in the UK. Stalked animals called sea lilies were tethered to the bed in great "meadows". Their free-floating cousins, the feather stars, were ambling by, looking to grab the same particles of food. And down in the sediment, starfish and brittle stars were feeling their way across the bottom with their fives arms, no doubt bumping into the occasional passing sea urchin or sea cucumber. It's exactly this scene that's preserved in the rocks of our mystery quarry. "We live in a changing world today, and if we want to understand how climate change might affect not only the future of humanity but of all life on Earth's surface, then the echinoderms are one of the best groups to study," echinoderm specialist Jeff Thompson says. Source - https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57853537 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FfFfFfFF 58,174 Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FfFfFfFF 58,174 Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 (ancient seabed ingraved in limestone slab) https://www.livescience.com/jurassic-pompeii-echinoderm-fossils-cotswolds Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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