Huge group of Ordovician fossils found in Wales

Mickeroo

THere's been a massive find of 450m year old fossils found in a quarry in Powys, Wales.

Scientists believe they have made a remarkable discovery of fossils said to be more than 450 million years old in a disused Powys quarry.

They think they are of a kind never before discovered.

The well-preserved organisms from the Ordovician period, which began about 495m years ago, lived in what is now the town of Llandrindod Wells, which was partially under water.

Scientists believe they shed new light on how ocean communities have evolved.

The fossils include a variety of creatures from sponges and worms to nautiloids, which are similar to a squid with a shell.

They were found by palaeontologists Dr Joe Botting, Dr Lucy Muir and Talfan Barnie in 2004 and were revealed using X-ray scanning.

However, details of the significance of the find have only recently been published.

Dr Muir, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China, said the discovery provided a picture of a fossil community that was entirely new and surprising.

Sounds like a pretty significant find, full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-16138335

Galvasean

My first response, "Whales, in the Ordivician?!! :eek:"