It is a discovery described as exceptional in South Africa. A team of researchers has unearthed a “paleolake”, an ancient lake more than 260 million years old that is full of ancient fossils from those ancient times. Work published in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
It was in the Karoo region, in the North Cape province, that the discovery was made. A fossil lake, which existed 260 million years ago, in the Permian age. The continents then formed a single one, Pangea, and South Africa was at the level of present-day Antarctica, in a temperate and humid climate. This deposit allows us to open a window on these remote ages.
” There are plant fossils, insects, small aquatic mites, worms… It’s an exceptional conservation because we have some color that is preserved, some animals. We have a 3D conservation in some cases. We have insect larvae that are kept with the adults. It is a very rich deposit, because, until now, we had to excavate on 2 or 3 cubic meters of rock, and there are thousands of fossils. This should keep people busy for years “, explains André Nel, professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, who participated in these excavations.
This research will notably help to better understand how and where species lived 260 million years ago. It will also provide clues to better understand one of the most cataclysmic events in our planet’s history: the Great Permian Extinction. It had decimated 96% of marine species, and three-quarters of terrestrial species.
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