During a recent field survey of paleontological fossil origins in Thang Duc, Hunan Province, China, the Hunan Provincial Museum of Geology discovered and collected a large sponge fossil dating back to the early Cambrian period, approximately 540 million years ago.
This is also the first complete sponge fossil that the museum has collected since 1958.
Fossil sponge approximately 540 million years old. (Photo: Xinhua).
Paleontologist at the Hunan Geological Museum Dong Quang Huy stated that the technical staff collected 15 fossil samples during this survey. Among these, the large sponge fossil from the early Cambrian is the most well-preserved. Based on the stratigraphy where the fossil was formed, this sponge fossil has an estimated age of around 540 million years, which is about 20 million years earlier than the Cambrian period – a time when life exploded in diversity.
Sponge organisms first appeared in Earth’s oceans around 600 million years ago, attaching themselves to sediments on the ocean floor and filtering food from the seawater flowing through their bodies. They are considered the most primitive animals capable of performing biogenic mineralization and were also the first animals on Earth to participate in the silicon element cycle.
According to researcher Han Jian from the Geological Department of Northwest University, preliminary identification indicates this is a fossil of the sponge family, which is also one of the representative fossils of the Yangtze River fauna in Yunnan (about 518 million years ago).
Dong Quang Huy assessed that this discovery indicates that the oceans at that time had a high level of primary productivity, with a rich amount of plankton that could support the existence of large sponge species and potentially many other organisms. Further field investigations might prove these predictions.
