The Anji Biota: mass extinction, but sponge paradise!

Konservat-Lagerstatten (sites of exceptional fossil preservation) come in all shapes and sizes, and no two are identical. The Anji Biota, though, is truly unique, as, so far, nothing else even comes close to telling us the same things. Nestled around a beautiful reservoir in Anji County, Zhejiang Province (China, in case you hadn't guessed!) lies a sequence of mudstone from immediately after the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction. It contains ludicrous sponges that look like modern deep-sea hexactinellids, the oldest eurypterid from China, and gazillions of graptolites, all buried in a deep, dark marine basin. This is an introduction to the deposit, its discovery, and what its place is in our understanding of the history of life... A few references (if not open access, most should be available through Researchgate): Anji Biota announcement (open access): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/... Preservation paper (Wu et al. 2022): https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/a... Anjiplectella: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a... Pseudomatteolaspongia (open access): http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/fullte... Huangshi Biota: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/... Presenter: Joe Botting and Lucy Muir