author: Agnieszka Kliks-Pudlik, akp/bar/
An article on this subject, published in the journal “Acta Geologica Polonica”, crowns almost ten years of research on Silurian rocks (one of the periods of the Paleozoic era, lasting 444-419 million years ago), which were conducted in the western part of Ukraine by a team from the Faculty of Geology University of Warsaw.
they focused on sites rich in stromatoporoid layers, i.e. built by a mysterious group of extinct organisms living on the seabed. In the Paleozoic, especially in the Silurian and Devonian periods, stromatoporoids were the basic constructors of the organic structures of that time, which can be treated as equivalents of modern reefs.
In prehistory, Europe was hit by tsunamis
To the scientists’ surprise, it turned out that most of the examined layers were deposited as a result of the washing away of reefs during violent storms.
Perhaps the most interesting discovery we made was the similarity of some of the sediments to layers deposited by the tsunami. Although the Silurian tsunamites of Podolia were not the first fossil deposits to which such a genesis was attributed, they soon became one of the best examples in the world of recording this type of phenomenon in sediments.
– emphasized one of the research participants, Prof. Stanisław Skompski.
A prehistoric plant living in symbiosis with an animal
Even more interesting, according to scientists, were the layers located between the stromatoporoid layers, which came from extremely shallow-water coastal environments. Researchers found in them – preserved in excellent condition – mysterious, sessile organisms with twigs of epiphytic organisms attached to them.
Prof. helped identify them as graptolites. Anna Kozłowska from the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Graptolites are a group of extinct animals with a rather unusual structure – they resembled thin twigs with short outgrowths called tecs. In turn, an epiphyte is a plant growing on another plant – usually not leading a parasitic lifestyle, but using another species as support.
We managed to confirm the graptolite nature of the mysterious branches growing on algae, and thus demonstrate the co-occurrence of plant (algae) and animal (graptolite) forms.
– said prof. Skompski in an interview with Nauka w Polsce. He added, however, that the nature of this “cooperation” remains unclear.
Both observed forms: algae and graptolite – have not been known before. Researchers named them: Voronocladus dryganti and Podoliagraptus algaeoides. As pointed out by prof. Skompski, the name of the alga refers to the name of prof. Danila Drygant from the Natural History Museum in Lviv and is a thank you for his contribution to many years of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in research.
In the opinion of prof. Skompski, discoveries from the entire period of almost ten years of research significantly enrich the knowledge about Silurian sediments deposited several hundred million years ago on the shore of the large Eastern European continent, the border of which ran, among others, through today’s Poland.
– The Silurian was an extremely important period for the evolution of life on Earth, as it was a time of expansion of marine vegetation typical of shallow waters towards land. The discovery of the co-occurrence of plant and animal forms is an important contribution to identifying the characteristics of this process – concluded Prof. Skompski.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
