The origin and evolution of life is a scientific question that humans are eternally exploring. More than 100 years ago, Darwin mentioned in his "Origin of Species" that the sudden appearance of complex animals in the Cambrian strata made him deeply puzzled.
The Chengjiang fauna in China reproduced the true appearance of marine life in the early Cambrian period more than 500 million years ago, providing extremely precious evidence for revealing the mysteries of the evolution of early life on Earth.
Odd shrimp appeared in the early Cambrian period. They have strange body shapes. The longest body is more than 2 meters long. They were the first top predators to dominate the ocean.
Over the years, the anomaly fossil studied this time has become a representative symbol of the Chengjiang fauna, often appearing in international academic conferences and popular science works in many countries.
Recently, scientists from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that this "star strange shrimp" has a peculiar shape and is different from the already named group of strange shrimp.
The scientific research team established a new genus and new species for it, and named it "Maotianshan Pioneering Shrimp" to commemorate the older generation of Chinese scientists who studied the Chengjiang fauna and inherit their pioneering and innovative scientific spirit.
Paleontological research has revealed the great radiation of biodiversity and mass extinction events that occurred on the earth in the past, which has important enlightenment and reference significance for human beings to study biodiversity, environmental changes and explore extraterrestrial life on the earth today.
(Part of Zhang Chuanming’s video source: Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Responsible editor: [Wang Kai]