Scientists have unearthed in southern China fossils of a multitude of marine creatures dating to more than a half billion years ago, showing a deep-water ecosystem thriving in the aftermath of the first mass extinction of the animal world.
The Cambrian Period fossils, about 512 million years old, are of invertebrates of various shapes and sizes, including an apex predator with menacing grasping appendages.
They are exceptionally well-preserved sometimes down to the cellular level, revealing legs, gills, guts, eyes and even nerves.
The researchers collected more than 50,000 fossil speci
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