(ORDO NEWS) — Worms and shrimp were the first living things to repopulate after a mass extinction that wiped out almost all life on the planet 252 million years ago.
By studying the bottom of the South China Sea, the researchers were able to piece together a picture of the resurgence of marine life.
According to them, shrimp and worms were the first to restore their population and species diversity – this happened about 251 million years ago.
After them, the coral population began to recover, about 248 million years ago, mollusks repeated this.
“We were able to study fossil tracks from 26 sites over seven million years after the extinction and reconstructed the recovery stages of all ocean animals,” explained one of the authors of the work, Michael Benton.
In particular, scientists considered a huge amount not of the fossil remains themselves, but of traces of their vital activity, for example, burrows.
These finds help scientists determine the behavior of various living beings and the time of their active prosperity.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.