8 October 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The ancestors of many animal species alive today may have lived in a delta in what is now China, new research suggests

The ancestors of many animal species alive today may have lived in a delta in what is now China, new research suggests.

 The researchers believe that Chengjian, a city in the mountainous Yunnan Province of China, is the origin of many of today’s species, including humans.

This site is where complex organisms first developed, an event known as the ‘Cambrian Explosion’, a major time period in the history of the Earth.

The Ediacaran and Cambrian periods were around half a billion years ago. But hidden in the genetic code of modern animals are signs of when the major animal groups first arose.

The 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Biota—in Yunnan, southwest China—is one of the oldest groups of animal fossils currently known to science and a key record of the Cambrian Explosion.



📣 Our WhatsApp channel is now LIVE! Stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates, just click here to follow us on WhatsApp and never miss a thing!!



Fossils of more than 250 species have been found there, including various worms, arthropods (ancestors of living shrimps, insects, spiders, scorpions), and even the earliest vertebrates (ancestors of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals).

The Cambrian seas teemed with new types of animal, such as the predator Anomalocaris (centre). Credit: John Sibbick/Natural History Museum
The Cambrian seas teemed with new types of animals, such as the predator Anomalocaris (center). Credit: John Sibbick/Natural History Museum

The new study finds for the first time that this environment was a shallow-marine, nutrient-rich delta affected by storm floods.

The area is now on land in the mountainous Yunnan Province, but the team studied rock core samples that show evidence of marine currents in the past environment.

“The Cambrian Explosion is now universally accepted as a genuine rapid evolutionary event, but the causal factors for this event have been long debated, with hypotheses on environmental, genetic, or ecological triggers,” said senior author Dr. Xiaoya Ma, a palaeobiologist at the University of Exeter and Yunnan University.

“The discovery of a deltaic environment shed new light on understanding the possible causal factors for the flourishing of these Cambrian bilaterian animal-dominated marine communities and their exceptional soft-tissue preservation.

“The unstable environmental stressors might also contribute to the adaptive radiation of these early animals.”

Co-lead author Farid Saleh, a sedimentologist and taphonomist at Yunnan University, said: “We can see from the association of numerous sedimentary flows that the environment hosting the Chengjiang Biota was complex and certainly shallower than what has been previously suggested in the literature for similar animal communities.”

Fish (Myllokunmingia). Credit: Dr Xiaoya Ma
Fish (Myllokunmingia). Credit: Dr Xiaoya Ma

Changshi Qi, the other co-lead author and a geochemist at the Yunnan University, added: “Our research shows that the Chengjiang Biota mainly lived in a well-oxygenated shallow-water deltaic environment.

“Storm floods transported these organisms down to the adjacent deep oxygen-deficient settings, leading to the exceptional preservation we see today.”

Co-author Luis Buatois, a paleontologist and sedimentologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said: “The Chengjiang Biota, as is the case of similar faunas described elsewhere, is preserved in fine-grained deposits.

“Our understanding of how these muddy sediments were deposited has changed dramatically during the last 15 years.

“Application of this recently acquired knowledge to the study of fossiliferous deposits of exceptional preservation will change dramatically our understanding of how and where these sediments accumulated.”

The results of this study are important because they show that most early animals tolerated stressful conditions, such as salinity (salt) fluctuations, and high amounts of sediment deposition.

Lobopodian worm (Luolishania). Credit: Dr. Xiaoya Ma
Lobopodian worm (Luolishania). Credit: Dr. Xiaoya Ma

This contrasts with earlier research suggesting that similar animals colonized deeper-water, more stable marine environments.

“It is hard to believe that these animals were able to cope with such a stressful environmental setting,” said M. Gabriela Mángano, a paleontologist at the University of Saskatchewan, who has studied other well-known sites of exceptional preservation in Canada, Morocco, and Greenland.

Maximiliano Paz, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan who specializes in fine-grained systems, added: “Access to sediment cores allowed us to see details in the rock which are commonly difficult to appreciate in the weathered outcrops of the Chengjiang area.”

This work is an international collaboration between Yunnan University, the University of Exeter, the University of Saskatchewan, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Lausanne, and the University of Leicester.

The research was funded by the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the George J. McLeod Enhancement Chair in Geology.

The paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, is entitled: “The Chengjiang Biota inhabited a deltaic environment.”

University of Exeter

Cover Photo: Arthropod (Naroia). Credit: Dr. Xiaoya Ma

Related Articles

A Mysterious Chapel Discovered in Istanbul Bagcılar

3 August 2023

3 August 2023

While Istanbul continues to surprise with the richness of its historical heritage, this time a chapel was discovered in Bağcılar....

More than 56400 Cultural Goods Seized in Operation Pandora V

11 May 2021

11 May 2021

Operation Pandora V, aimed at preventing the illegal trade of cultural goods, has been one of the most successful operations...

Extraordinary Discovery of a Unique Painted Tomb in Tarquinia’s Etruscan Necropolis

1 February 2025

1 February 2025

Exceptional discovery in the necropolis of Tarquinia, located near the western coast in central Italy, north of Rome (a UNESCO...

A Mysterious Partially Submerged Structure in Ireland is a Prehistoric Tomb, archaeologist says

25 October 2022

25 October 2022

New research has revealed that a mysterious structure found many years ago on the eastern shore of Cork Harbor in...

Farmer was Discovers 2600-year-old Stone Slab of Pharaoh Apries

19 June 2021

19 June 2021

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced that a farmer in Ismailia, Egypt, uncovered a 2,600-year-old stone monument erected by Pharaoh...

Rescue work begins on a 160-year-old shipwreck, the largest and best-preserved wooden shipwreck ever discovered underwater in China

3 March 2022

3 March 2022

Rescue work has begun on a 160-year-old shipwreck in China, the largest and best-preserved wooden wreck ever discovered underwater. This...

Mysterious T-Shaped Pillars and 50 Neolithic Structures Found in Sayburç, the Heart of Taş Tepeler

7 September 2025

7 September 2025

Archaeologists working in Şanlıurfa’s Sayburç settlement in southeastern Türkiye have unearthed a remarkable treasure from the deep past: over 50...

Archaeologists discover a new megalithic monument in heart of Andalusia in southern Spain – 5,000-year-old secret

5 May 2023

5 May 2023

Archaeologists in Spain uncovered a previously overlooked tomb while investigating the formation of La Peña de los Enamorados, also known...

Archaeologists identify a sunken Nabataean temple dedicated to the God Dusares at Pozzuoli

12 April 2023

12 April 2023

Off the coast of Pozzuoli on the Phlegrean Peninsula in Campania, Italy, underwater archaeologists have identified a sunken Nabataeans temple...

Ancient ‘Cancer-Treating’ Magical Amulet Discovered in Türkiye’s Antioch of Pisidia

30 December 2024

30 December 2024

An intriguing artifact was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Pisidia Antioch in Isparta province in western Türkiye:...

The circular-shaped structure unearthed in Uşaklı mound may point to the holy Hittite city of Zippalanda

27 December 2022

27 December 2022

Italian-Turkish team of archaeologists led by the University of Pisa unearthed a mysterious circle-shaped structure from the Hittite era at...

An ancient necropolis and coins discovered in Kastel Fortress, a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina

11 November 2024

11 November 2024

During excavations at Kastel Fortress, the national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, students and professors of Archaeology and History found...

Archaeologists reveal largest paleolithic cave art site in Eastern Iberia

17 September 2023

17 September 2023

More than 100 ancient paintings and engravings thought to be at least 24,000 years old were found in the cave...

A Circular Building with Six Towers of the Achaemenid Period discovered in Khorasan

3 April 2024

3 April 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered an almost circular adobe building with six towers, built in the 6th century BC, near Birjand in...

Uncovering a Rare Enamelled Roman Brooch in Scotland

6 March 2025

6 March 2025

Recent research by GUARD Archaeology highlights a rare enamelled Roman brooch, suggesting its potential use in a “foundation offerings ritual”...