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<keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> is currently in the middle of a mass extinction, losing thousands of species each year and new research suggests environmental changes caused the first such event in history, which occurred millions of years earlier than scientists previously thought. Most dinosaurs famously disappeared 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. Prior to that, a majority of Earth's creatures were snuffed out between the Permian and Triassic periods, roughly 252 million years ago. According to researchers at University of California-Riverside (UCR) and <keyword id="159041" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="virginia-tech" source="Orion">Virginia Tech</keyword>, a similar extinction occurred 550 million years ago, during the <keyword id="3154582" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ediacaran" source="Orion">Ediacaran</keyword> period. Although unclear whether this represents a true "mass extinction", the percentage of organisms lost is similar to these other events, including the current, ongoing one, said researchers in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers believe environmental changes are to blame for the loss of approximately 80 per cent of all Ediacaran creatures, which were the first complex, multicellular life forms on the planet. "Geological records show that the world's oceans lost a lot of oxygen during that time, and the few species that did survive had bodies adapted for lower oxygen environments," said Chenyi Tu, UCR paleoecologist and study co-author. Unlike later events, this earliest one was more difficult to document because the creatures that perished were soft bodied and did not preserve well in the fossil record. "We suspected such an event, but to prove it we had to assemble a massive database of evidence," said <keyword id="15629970" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rachel-surprenant" source="Orion">Rachel Surprenant</keyword>, UCR paleoecologist and study co-author. To reach this conclusion, the team documented nearly every known Ediacaran animal's environment, body size, diet, ability to move, and habits. Ediacaran creatures would be considered strange by today's standards. Many of the animals could move, but they were unlike anything now living. Among them were Obamus coronatus, a disc-shaped creature named for the former president, and Attenborites janeae, a tiny ovoid resembling a raisin named for English naturalist Sir David Attenborough. "These animals were the first evolutionary experiment on Earth, but they only lasted about 10 million years. Not long at all, in evolutionary terms," said UCR paleo-ecologist <keyword id="15629969" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="mary-droser" source="Orion">Mary Droser</keyword>. "We can see the impact of climate change on ecosystems and should note the devastating effects as we plan for the future," added Phillip Boan, UC Riverside geologist and study co-author. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nano-satellites-built-by-startups-augurs-well-for-private-sectors-future-endeavours-in-space/articleshow/95801378.cms">Nano-satellites built by startups augurs well for private sector's future endeavours: IN-SPACe</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/musk-reveals-twitter-2-0-says-top-software-aces-joining-company/articleshow/95801283.cms">Musk reveals Twitter 2.0, says top software aces joining company</a>

Earth is losing thousands of species each year, reveals research

Forget <keyword id="6354576" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> or Twitter which arrived on the scene a few years back. Scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have discovered fossilised threads -- some as long as four metres -- connecting organisms known as rangeomorphs which dominated Earth's oceans half a billion years ago. The network of thread-like <keyword id="2673300" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="filaments">filaments</keyword> is the earliest evidence yet found of life being connected in this way. The team found these filament networks - which may have been used for nutrition, communication or reproduction -in seven <keyword id="6388594" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="species">species</keyword> across nearly 40 different fossil sites in <keyword id="334860" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Newfoundland">Newfoundland</keyword>, Canada. "These organisms seem to have been able to quickly colonise the sea floor, and we often see one dominant species on these fossil beds," said Dr Alex Liu from Cambridge's department of earth sciences and the paper's first author. "We've always looked at these organisms as individuals, but we've now found that several individual members of the same species can be linked by these filaments, like a real-life social network," Liu added. Towards the end of the Ediacaran period, between 571 and 541 million years ago, the first diverse communities of large and complex organisms began to appear; prior to this, almost all life on Earth had been microscopic in size, according to the study reported in the journal <keyword id="109074" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Current-Biology">Current Biology</keyword>. Fern-like rangeomorphs were some of the most successful life forms during this period, growing up to two metres in height and colonising large areas of the sea floor. Rangeomorphs may have been some of the first animals to exist, although their strange anatomies have puzzled palaeontologists for years. These organisms do not appear to have had mouths, organs or means of moving. One suggestion is that they absorbed nutrients from the water around them. Since rangeomorphs could not move and are preserved where they lived, it is possible to analyse whole populations from the fossil record. Most of the filaments were between two and 40 centimetres in length, although some were as long as four metres. Since they are so thin however, the filaments are only visible in places where the fossil preservation is exceptionally good, which is one of the reasons they were not identified sooner. It's possible that the filaments were used as a form of clonal reproduction, like modern strawberries, but since the organisms in the network were the same size, the filaments may have had other functions. For example, the filaments may have provided stability against strong ocean currents. Another possibility is that they enabled organisms to share nutrients, a prehistoric version of the 'wood wide web' observed in modern-day trees. "The most unexpected thing for me is the realisation that these things are connected. I've been looking at them for over a decade, and this has been a real surprise," said Liu.

Facebook for Fossils: Half a billion years ago, life was connected via filament threads

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Earth is losing thousands of species each year, reveals research

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Facebook for Fossils: Half a billion years ago, life was connected via filament threads

IANS

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