Oldest fossils of large seaweeds, possible animals tell story about ox

[Harlequinmania]

Almost 600 million years ago, before the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche under the sea near what is now Anhui Province of South China. Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free waters. Scientists report the discovery of the fossils and the mystery.

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