Scientists uncover fossil ecosystem that helped recovery of Earth’s oceans

IN WHAT has been hailed as groundbreaking research reshaping the understanding of early marine resilience, a team of scientists has uncovered fossil evidence of a tiny ecosystem that helped kick-start the recovery of Earth's oceans after a global mass extinction.

- OWN CORRESPONDENT

The international team made of scientists from South Africa, Canada, France and the United Kingdom (UK), and led by Dr Claire Browning, an Honorary Research Associate at UCT, found fossilised burrows and droppings left by creatures so small they lived between grains of sand.

Their findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, revealed an ancient community that is believed to have played a critical role in reviving marine life after the end-Ordovician ice age and mass extinction event.

Using micro-CT scanning, an advanced X-ray imaging technique that allows scientists to visualise the interior of rocks in three dimensions, the team examined 444-million-year-old mudrock from the Cederberg mountains.