Scientists have discovered an ancient quarry in South Africa containing numerous plant and animal fossils. This has been reported by the Natural History Museum.
“The fossils we found are very old but perfectly preserved. They have preserved many small details that are not always well preserved, such as the hairs and veins of insect wings, their gut contents, the soft tissues of animals and non-woody ones,” says their leader, Rosemary Prevek.
Fossils of the Fore Karoo region are well preserved, as in the past this part of Gondwana was located on a quiet sea coast and was a shallow lake at the site of the quarry. Thousands of plant and insect fossils, about 266 million years old, were found during the 10-week fieldwork. The lake was an ideal breeding ground for a variety of invertebrates, including stoneflies and short-lived insects such as dragonflies. Fossils found at this site are the earliest examples of these animals found in Gondwana.
Prevec et al./Communication Biology
Examples found in excavations Glossopteris, a plant that botanists think resembles a fern. Recent finds, including many fossilized male and female cones, determined it was a conifer, a distant relative of pine and redwoods.
Identified groups of invertebrates include: Paleodictioptera (an ancient group of insects that went extinct at the end of the Permian), many dragonfly-like creatures Protozygopteraalso water bugs and annelids, spiders and Archaeorthoptera – this group includes modern grasshoppers, crickets and a number of arachnids.
Source: Gazeta
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