Chinese Fossil Find: Discovery Of 20,000 Fossils Sheds Light On Life After Mass Extinction (PHOTOS)

An enormous cache of almost 20,000 fossils, exemplifying a near complete ecosystem from the Triassic period, has given scientists a rare view into life after a mass extinction.

After massive volcanic eruptions and devastating global warming wiped out 90 percent of life on earth nearly 250 million years ago, life found itself on the brink of nonexistence, according to Yahoo news.

The discovery of these fossils gives the clearest look into life after the cataclysmic end-Permian events. The data suggests that it took even longer for life to recover from the destruction than it did following the events that killed the dinosaurs:

From LiveScience:

"Recovery after most mass extinctions, including the K-T [that killed the dinosaurs], seems to have taken 1 million to 4 million years," Benton said. "The end-Permian event was so profound, killing perhaps 90 percent of species, that ecosystems had nothing left to hang their structure on."

The trove of unearthed fossils in a 50-foot thick slab of limestone took three years to excavate, and revealed now-extinct marine life as large as a thalattosaur of about 10 feet in length, according to the University of Bristol in the UK. The study was led by scientists from the Chengdu Geological Center in China and co-authored by Professor Michael Benton from Bristol.

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Comments

[Wild Turkey]

11:53 AM on 01/07/2011

Wow, Noah saved an amazing array of life in his giant boat that was so poorly designed any shipwright or boat designer knows it would capsize immediately unless it was almost completely filled with ballast. Too bad they didn't make it the next 4,000 years for us to interact with them like Adam and Eve did.

[outnow]

10:12 AM on 12/31/2010

I'm taking a bit of flack for insinuating that that many right wingers are faith-based and ignore evidence such as the fossil record. Bush was faith-based (he claimed) but a less spiritual person is hard to conceive of for me at least. Stem cell research was set back decades. So being conservative means being stupid to me. Sorry. Likewise with promoting overpopulation.

That fossil record tends to prove evolution. Carbon 14 and potassium argon dating helped but the law of superhorizontality means that older stuff is on the bottom.

My first palentological expedition was over fifty years ago - between the Bay of Pigs and the JFK assassination. The fossil finds were amazing involking exclamations of "laudate deum!" The entire creation is wonderous but that does not "prove" that a higher being exists nor that she created anything. Who created her?

The telescope was invented and the Flat Earthers lost that debate that the earth was the center of the universe and was flat.

The power of common observation is the most powerful tool available. That requires that people open their eyes to see what is placed before their own eyes. None are so blind as those who refuse to see.

[Monk2001]

01:04 PM on 12/28/2010

Best fossil... "A Plant"...

[Monk2001]

01:02 PM on 12/28/2010

Wait. What do fossils and David Bowie have to do with each other?

After proof reading my post I realize the inherit joke now. ZIGGY!

[NormalAmericanMan]

02:08 PM on 12/27/2010

Creationists are such a waste of time. "The world is flat!"

They have to die out over time... Meanwhile, they are going to hold our education system to a crawl.

[farmilyman]

12:44 AM on 12/27/2010

Soon they'll discover John McCain.

[outnow]

11:21 AM on 12/26/2010

I have actually witnessed the Devil planting fossils on high mountains to temp unsuspecting people into not believing in the dogma. I know some of you will not believe me. That's because you lack true faith.

We are trained to accept propositions without evidence on a faith-based reality. Our dear Leader - George "W" told us this. I know that many out there will believe me. The Devil is red and has two horns and cloven feet with a tail that has a pointed end. I couldn't just make that up - such detail "proves it."

If you don't believe me, you are going to the "bad place."

Please send all donations directly to my bank account and you will be saved! 40% of all Americans will believe my story. Prove your faith by contributing. The Devil lies to test you. Make Him wrong by sending money.

Isn't that how the religion business works?

The fossil record is there but traces of the Devil are intentionally hidden. It all makes sense. LOL

[GSR]

05:57 AM on 12/27/2010

Great post but can we all - left and right - please give "LO funkin L" a complete swerve? Let's take it as read that irony and sarcasm can stand unsupported by redundant modifiers.

[Rus Viking]

02:57 PM on 12/27/2010

GSR

Clearly you haven't been to the Creation Science Museum in Petersburg KY .

posted Dec 27, 2010 at 06:14:20 Reply Link
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No. But I've been to the Museum of Natural History many times and they have about as much 'Evidence" and 'Science' as any "Pentecostal Tent Revival'
You guys "speak in tongues' almost as well as they do.

p.s. Try and evolve a pair of B@llz (or, maybe even just one.) and
'Defend Your Position!!!!' rather than mock and ridicule someone else's.
Unless, of course, you can't.
Tell me what Degrees in Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology or Biochemistry you hold and/or how you've replicated and verified any of the fossil testing procedures presented above. (Or, any in the past.) Do you even know the difference between Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks? Can you perform and analyze the data from a Radioactive Carbon 14 Test? Or, do you just take what's handed down from the College of 'Scientific' Cardinals as Gospel? I'm confident that you're no more 'scientifically minded' than any of those you mock at a 'Revival'

You're just sitting in a different 'Tent'.

(Sans B@llz, of course)

[Will Samart]

07:05 PM on 12/28/2010

LOL, awsome

[RTIII]

12:24 PM on 12/24/2010

#5, Corpolite - fosilized dung - oh, that one is REALLY important!

[jimboy71]

01:19 PM on 12/24/2010

Coprolites are the MAJOR way we find out what extinct animals ate, how their digestive systems worked, and sometimes, even what ailments they suffered from. So yes, EXREMELY important.

[2013]

11:49 AM on 12/24/2010

If you want to argue religion, grab a very large rock, set down in front of it and stay there until it thinks like you do, good luck. However if you want to examine cycles of weather and the destruction of species you now have an audience that is open. The human species has seen at least two times that our world threw cycles of heat and cold or large rocks falling on your head, chicken little may be right! that the most advanced species at that time was killed off. Taking this a step further it can be said that heat or cold cycles or huge rocks would destroy the humans ability to survive throwing those left back into ,if not the stone age then into pre mid evil days in Europe. So, we as a species, who now know it happened twice before can argue about what we can do to stop the changes or work for a space program and if we can make changes.
Then, if we have two miles of ice or a great desert of a world we can argue religion on another planet!

[Philclock]

03:22 PM on 12/26/2010

You must be one of those mad scientists from B movies of yesteryear, whose arrogance at changing the forces of nature always results, in the end, at abject humility, under the thumb of nature itself.

Sorry, I will refuse to wear the EPA's CO2-measuring breatholyzer for its future cap-and-trade tax on each person.

[GSR]

06:07 AM on 12/27/2010

Well said Philclock. It's absolute rubbish that CO2 is a green house gas. Next they will be telling us that H2O is a green house gas. HaHaHa. Anyway where is the evidence that green house gasses could possibly warm the planet. Breathlolyyzer indeed! Philcock you smashed them out of the ball park mate. Next they'll be telling us that tax cuts increase the deficit. HaHaHahahahhhhaaaaaaa

[Left of Right]

11:43 AM on 12/24/2010

If anyone takes a picture of me in 20,000 years and puts it on HP, I hope I have my make-up on.

Other than that, wow!

[oxjr]

02:32 PM on 12/24/2010

Me - I plan on being downloaded into a bio-identical robot body, so if HP want's my picture I will go all zoolander on them.

[Craig 212]

11:23 AM on 12/24/2010

And yet evolution deniers persist.

[jimboy71]

01:19 PM on 12/24/2010

When your stock answer to everything is God made it to test me, then it's not so hard to see why.

[notdarkyet]

01:43 PM on 12/24/2010

But they believe in the Shroud.

[Rus Viking]

03:04 PM on 12/24/2010

And these Dinosaurs evolved into what?

[Number 6]

04:25 PM on 12/24/2010

Well, there's now a great deal of evidence that one line of dinosaurs, the therapods, evolved into modern birds.

[justadood]

05:40 PM on 12/25/2010

your turkey dinner... took a little while, though.

[at78rpm]

10:16 AM on 12/24/2010

If only the news headlines were like this every day! This is the stuff that makes life endlessly fun and interesting on this lovely little planet. That said, you may just have upset a few creationists in Kentucky. How does the Permian extinction fit in with Noah's Ark?

One of the things I'm grateful for this Christmas is the gift my parents gave me, which is the gift of inquisitiveness. Thanks, mom and dad, for not boxing me in to some pre-conceived notion of how everything fits neatly into a pre-configured plan. Welcome, o anarchy of life!

[RAMstein]

10:26 AM on 12/24/2010

"How does the Permian extinction fit in with Noah's Ark?"

I've actually had people tell me that the devil planted fossils to fool us. Seems to me he did a pretty thorough job of planting them; must have been Miller Time when he finally finished the work.

[axt113]

10:47 AM on 12/24/2010

Devil works harder than Christian God if he does all this fooling

[Craig 212]

11:24 AM on 12/24/2010

Haven't heard that one, but I've repeatedly heard the "God put fossils in the ground to test our faith," line.

[Heavy]

10:10 AM on 12/24/2010

In 250 million years something will be digging us up.

[oxjr]

03:02 PM on 12/24/2010

when we die off, whatever species survives will probably be so well adapted to the environment that it won't ever need a shovel and thus will never ever dig up anything.

Humans being are kinda meak animals who liked to migrate to places they shouldn't live. That is why we developed tools, and that is why there will never another animal like us. Seriously - what animal that doesn't have fur and doesn't hibernate, decides to walk away from abundant food to travel north. We are luck we got thumbs or we would not have lasted this long.

[Jay Guinne]

07:53 PM on 12/24/2010

Because we had thumbs we went north

[Pandoras Folly]

12:14 PM on 12/28/2010

a highly evolved animal has no need for brains. look at the shark or manits shrimp. perfectly suited to their environments and not a lick of sentience between them. and the mantis shrimp can read blue ray dvds, has 5 color vision and a built in plasma gun. really look it up, the mantis shrimp is a super power.

[ProCynic]

10:10 AM on 12/24/2010

You know, I'm not a creationist, but all the folks here that like to poke and jeer at those that are creationists are just childish. Out of the 40% or so of Americans that believe in some sort of creationism, most aren't of the 6000 year variety. In fact, many believe the creation story is representive of the epochs of creation, something complicated that was put down in writing as a simple explanation.

So, please, when we have these wonderful photos and science articles and an opportunity to peer into the prehistoric past of our world and universe, do try to bring something to the conversation other than your childish, almost fetish-like, derisive comments. Leave that to the "other" side. Try some maturity.

[sean62965]

10:20 AM on 12/24/2010

Some people need a slap in the face to wake them up. Others a kick in the pants. Either way, the flat earthers are more of a road block than a hurdle and need to be shoved out of the way.

[Craig 212]

11:31 AM on 12/24/2010

Actually, you're mistaken. According to the study, that 40% of Americans you mention ARE creationists who believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

The creationists who believe in a vague creator who uses evolution as one of his sandbox tools are an additional 38%.

Meaning that nearly 80% of Americans are creationists.

[notdarkyet]

01:45 PM on 12/24/2010

You just ruined my day. I had no idea things were that hopeless.

[oxjr]

03:11 PM on 12/24/2010

I don't think religious people who believe in actual science would like you lumping them in with the Creationists group. People who believe in Evolution believe in Evolution, period. How they interpret the science to fit their spiritual beliefs doesn't really matter as long as the science stays pure.

[OrangeSalad]

10:05 AM on 12/24/2010

I think it's a riot that they included a picture of caprolite - a million year old turd.

[RAMstein]

10:27 AM on 12/24/2010

250 million year old turd, but who's counting.

[punctuateddisequilibrium]

11:19 AM on 12/24/2010

I couldn't quite make out whether it was a foreshadowing of a Caprolite Monk, possibly Zen, or of an American hobo, of the Dust Bowl era. And "caprolite for brains" sounds much better than...

[punctuateddisequilibrium]

11:55 PM on 12/24/2010

Oops, coprolite. What a coprolite typo.