Chengjiang Biota - the dawn of the vertebrates, by Brian Choo:“Strange creatures swarm in shal

Chengjiang Biota - the dawn of the vertebrates, by Brian Choo:

“Strange creatures swarm in shallow sea off the northern fringes of the Gondwanan supercontinent. In the unimaginably distant future, this ancient seabed will be exposed as the Maotianshan Shale on the lush flanks of scenic hills in eastern Yunnan (Chengjiang, Jinning and Anning Counties), China. The fossils of the Maotianshan, collectively called the Chengjiang Biota, give a priceless glimpse into the Cambrian Explosion, the comparatively sudden appearances of a bewildering diversity of animal body forms that herald the arrival of the Phanerozoic. It represents one of a handful of Cambrian localities in the world, along with the Burgess Shale of Canada and Sirius Passet of Greenland, to feature extensive soft tissue preservation. The Chengjiang Biota currently includes well over 100 identified species, including creatures close to the ancestry of the vertebrate lineage.”