Unbelievable Archeological Site in Wales Shows Life 462 Million Years Ago

The discoveries at this sight are helping experts better understand our gap of knowledge during vital period for evolution

Hiya!

One of the reasons I love history is because of what it teaches us. And one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that everything runs in cycles. We, humans, repeat cycles as individuals and as a species. Mother Nature has cycles, too, such as seasons. The moon has cycles, and so does Life itself in the countless forms it takes. Several scientific fields are dedicated to understanding these cycles, hoping to answer some of Life’s greatest mysteries.

Because once we know the steps within one, we can better predict the future and, knowing our species, we’ll find a way to reproduce specific cycles for our own purposes. One such rotation of interest is the evolution of life on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Until this month, there’s been a massive gap in our understanding of Life’s cycle. But now, a new archeological site in Wales presents a treasure trove of knowledge about a mysteriously missing time period.

The Ordovician Period

The Cambrian Period occurred between 541 and 485.4 million years ago and was comprised of four stratigraphic series. This was an important time on Earth because it “produced the most intense burst of evolution ever known,” according to National Geographic. During the Cambrian Period, life emerged on a grand scale and in monumental diversity. It’s also known as the Cambrian Explosion, though what inspired it remains a mystery.

Still, experts know quite a bit about this period thanks to the many fossils of marine organisms that evolved hard shells or skeletons discovered from then — the oldest period from which animal fossils can be identified. Some are even the origin of major animal groups still around today, including mollusks, arthropods, and worms. We also know the significant majority of life that evolved occurred in the oceans rather than on land, which were still barren without plants or animals.

The Silurian Period, between 443.7 and 416 million years ago, was when life moved away from living in the water to living on land. Experts know there was a massive extinction event just before the Silurian Period began, the results of which led to a rapid recovery of biodiversity throughout the 28 million-year period. And we have a decent idea of how life progressed from there, thanks to previous research.

But, there’s been a significant lack of knowledge about the 45 million years or so after the Cambrian Period and before the Silurian Period. Known as the Ordovician Period, between 488.3 and 443.7 million years ago, which just happens to be one of the most crucial periods in the cycle of Life.

The Ordovician Period took the life that emerged during the Cambrian Explosion and continued an extraordinary diversification of plants and animals. It created ecosystems we’re familiar with today, like coral reefs. Algae and primitive animals thrived. It was a period of enormous transition from elementary oceans to relatively modern life forms we still find today.

Earth during the Ordovician Period looked very different. Everywhere north of the tropics was ocean, with sea levels almost 2,000 feet (600 meters) higher than today. Meanwhile, most of the landmass was grouped into one supercontinent called Gondwana in the southern hemisphere. (The supercontinent of Pangea that more people are familiar with formed after Gondwana, about 300 to 200 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Era until the very late Triassic.)

Yet, the Ordovician Period is a tricky time to study for archeologists, and it’s also a crucial one because it’s during this period that life transitioned to becoming more complex, which makes the new study I’m about to tell you all the more exciting.