Tiny fossil shells give clues to climate on ancient Earth

Tiny fossil shells give clues to climate on ancient Earth

Environment; earths climate; Cambrian explosion

News

1. A new study has analyzed tiny fossil shells to reveal clues about Earth’s climate over 500 million years ago.

Important Facts:

2. The discovery as a research paper has been published in the journal Science Advances
3. Findings suggest that animal life on earth developed 500 million years ago when the planet was likely in a ‘greenhouse’ climate interval. The temperatures were too high for permanent polar ice sheets to form.
4. This interval in time is known as the Cambrian explosion– A period in which most of the major animal groups sprung into existence

• Cambrian period: It is the earliest time division of Palaeozoic Era. It marked the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record.

5. The findings suggest this period, had a climate similar to that in which the dinosaurs lived.
   Scientists made the discovery after looking for clues in tiny fossil shells embedded in 510-515 million-year-old blocks of Shropshire limestone.
6. Scientists had suspected that the Cambrian was a warm period in the Earth’s history, but proof was lacking until now.
7. In the recent study, scientists used oxygen isotope ratios as proxy data to measure sea temperature from 500 million years ago. The study indicated very warm sea temperatures ranging above 20°C
8. Findings also indicated a well-preserved shell chemistry of the fossils as they grew on the Cambrian sea floor