What the researchers discovered at the Grand Canyon is fascinating

At the heart of the Grand Canyon, researchers have uncovered forms of marine life aged 500 million years. In addition, Their food structures, of unexpected complexity, reveal a much older evolving sophistication than we imagined.

A stable tropical sea which has favored the emergence of daring evolving strategies

Long before To become the arid landscape that we know. Nevertheless, the Grand Canyon housed a shallow tropical sea. Furthermore, Its lukewarm and oxygenated waters have enabled the development of unexpected biodiversity. In addition, Contrary to To the what researchers discovered grand canyon extreme environments of the other fossiliferous sites of the Cambrian. For example, this sea offered stability, light and biological productivity.

The review Science Advances Described fossils discovered in the Schists of the Bright Angel formation, in the heart of the canyon. These tiny remains, more Well preserved, testify to a surprising diversity. They reveal animals with advanced biological functions, capable of occupying many ecological niches.

Researchers see it as a striking example of “evolutionary climbing”: when Conditions are favorable, biological interactions are intensifying. Varied prey, ingenious hunting strategies, and sophisticated eating behaviors are set up, doors by the abundance of resources.

Fossils that reveal food mechanisms close to those of current marine species

Fossils are distinguished less by their. appearance than by their functions. Thanks to High definition microscopes, what researchers discovered grand canyon paleontologists have observed toothed structures, articulated appendages, and even traces of internal organs. These clues make it possible to rebuild food strategies comparable to those of modern marine animals.

Among Standing discoveries Figure Kraytdraco watcheda sea worm with a tubular mouth bristling with hundreds of microscopic teeth. Some are in the shape of a comb, other branches like feathers. According to The analyzes, this priapulide combined internal filtration and scraping of the seabed to eat.

Other species. such as some crustaceans, have legs fitted with bristles to capture plankton, as well as jaws with toothed molars to grind food. Even The molluscs of the time used their rages, rastered and used by abrasion, to scratch biofilms and algae.

An ancient biodiversity which laid the foundations for the evolution what researchers discovered grand canyon of complex life forms

These organizations have disappeared. more Their influence remains. The adaptations observed are not anomalies: they show that the functional complexity already existed in the invertebrates of the Cambrian. This diversity could have prepared the ground for the major evolutionary transitions of the phanerozoic.

By investing Stable and rich environments, these pioneering life forms may have imposed a demanding selective rhythm. They paved the way for increasingly fine evolutionary strategies. The Grand Canyon. today symbol of erosion, also becomes the witness of another dynamic: that of slow innovation, more deep, in the silence of the sediments.