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Tiny fossil shells give clues to climate on ancient Earth
Environment; earths climate; Cambrian explosion
News
- A new study has analyzed tiny fossil shells to reveal clues about Earth’s climate over 500 million years ago.
Important Facts:
- The discovery as a research paper has been published in the journal Science Advances
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. - Scientists had suspected that the Cambrian was a warm period in the Earth’s history, but proof was lacking until now.
- 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
- Findings also indicated a well-preserved shell chemistry of the fossils as they grew on the Cambrian sea floor
