Surprising Discovery in China: 400-Million-Year-Old “Refuge” of Paleozoic Era Found in Northeastern Yunnan on May 12, 2022.
400 Million Years Old Paleozoic.
Chinese scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery of a 400-million-year-old “Refuge” from the Paleozoic Era in northeastern Yunnan.
This site contains trilobite fossils before the mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician period, found in Zhenxiong County, Yunnan Province, China. This discovery is considered one of the oldest fossil finds from the six periods of the Paleozoic Era, marking the second-largest extinction event among the five major extinction events in Earth’s history.
Previously, dinosaur fossils from the Jurassic period had been discovered in Yunnan. According to various sources, Lufeng County in Yunnan is renowned as a dinosaur hub due to numerous Jurassic dinosaur discoveries in the area.
The trilobite fauna found in Zhenxiong predates the mass extinction event at the end of the Ordovician. The discovery includes 17 species across 9 families and 15 genera, with 4 of these species being new. The stratigraphy in Zhenxiong is rich in fossils and provides convenient access, making it an ideal location for studying the co-evolution of organisms and their environments prior to the mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician.
