寒武纪化石宝库重写早期生命故事
内容总结：
中国南方发现寒武纪化石宝库 改写早期生命演化认知
在我国南方，古生物学家发现了一处名为“花垣生物群”的寒武纪化石宝库，出土了8681件保存极为精美的化石标本，涵盖153个物种，其中超过一半是此前科学界从未发现的新物种。这一重大发现为理解寒武纪生命大爆发及早期海洋生态系统的演化提供了全新视角。
大约5.4亿年前，地球进入寒武纪，浅海环境与大气含氧量上升引发了著名的“寒武纪生命大爆发”，现代动物门类的雏形纷纷出现。然而，约5.135亿年前发生的“辛斯克事件”——由板块运动引发的大规模火山喷发导致海洋缺氧——造成了显生宙首次生物大灭绝，浅海生态系统遭到毁灭性打击。
长期以来，科学家对这段历史的认识主要依赖于加拿大布尔吉斯页岩等少数几个世界级化石宝库。此次发现的花垣生物群位于中国南方，其化石年代晚于辛斯克事件，且代表更深层的海洋环境。研究表明，这些化石与布尔吉斯页岩中的生物种类高度相似，证明当时全球海洋环流将不同海域的生态系统紧密相连。更关键的是，花垣生物群表明，深海区域在浅海遭受灭绝事件时，成为了生物的“避难所”。
中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所研究员、论文作者曾晗表示，现场和实验室中不断发现的新物种令人惊讶，而目前已发掘的化石仅是这座宝库中极小的一部分。这些精美化石不仅保存了生物的外形和外皮纹理，甚至连附肢、眼睛、鳃、内脏乃至神经系统等软体组织细节都清晰可见。
由于花垣生物群物种极其丰富，且填补了此前科学界对深海区域认知的空白，它将帮助古生物学家更精确地推断所有现代动物门类的演化路径，揭示海洋碳循环的起源、全球洋流如何连接海底食物网，以及驱动生态系统走向复杂化的关键力量。参与此项研究的圣塔菲研究所古生物学家道格·欧文赞叹道：“这些化石真是精妙绝伦。”
中文翻译：
寒武纪化石宝库改写早期生命史
韩曾/中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所
大约5.4亿年前，寒武纪初期，地球大部分被海洋覆盖，当时的生命形态既怪异又隐约可辨。形似阳具的小蠕虫在海底沉积物中翻寻食物，而盲眼的游弋生物甩出鞭状触手捕捉猎物。与此同时，软体动物和海绵的早期形态遍布海床，水母则在水中漂浮。
浅海海域与地球大气中氧气含量的增加触发了我们所说的"寒武纪生命大爆发"：现代生物多样性首次大规模绽放。日益复杂的生命形态填满海洋，为今天几乎所有现存动物门类奠定了进化基础。
随后，约5.135亿年前，发生了辛斯克事件——这是显生宙（我们当前所处的地质年代）已知首次生物大灭绝。随着地球板块移动，大量火山气体与二氧化碳改变大气成分，消耗海洋中的氧气，导致浅海环境遭受毁灭性打击。
科学家对地球这段历史的认知，很大程度上源于查尔斯·杜利特尔·沃尔科特于1909年在不列颠哥伦比亚省发现的伯吉斯页岩。伯吉斯页岩是少数达到"化石库"级别的寒武纪沉积层之一——这个德语术语用于描述物种极其多样且保存异常完好的化石遗址。能够保存软躯体生物的遗址更为罕见，因为软组织更易腐烂，这使得这类遗址对重构史前生态系统尤为珍贵。这些最特殊遗址出土的化石不仅呈现生物轮廓与外部纹理，还保留了附肢、内脏器官等细节，从眼睛、鳃到肠道、神经网络一应俱全。其他著名的化石库包括中国澄江化石地、格陵兰天狼星帕塞特以及澳大利亚埃姆湾页岩。
2026年，一个新的寒武纪化石库进入学界视野。中国南方古生物学家发现了一处宝藏——迄今保存最完好的寒武纪化石群，包含8681件跨越153个物种的庞大化石组合，被命名为"花园生物群"。花园生物群的许多化石与伯吉斯页岩中的标本近乎相同，表明这些海洋生态系统曾通过全球洋流相互连通。关键在于，由于花园遗址形成于辛斯克事件之后且代表更深海域，这批化石表明深水环境在生物大灭绝期间充当了生物的避难所。
令古生物学家欣喜的是，花园遗址发现的物种中超过半数为科学界新物种。论文作者、澄江古生物研究站站长、中国科学院古生物学家韩曾表示："当我们在野外和实验室中发现越来越多动物物种时，这个软躯体生物群惊人的多样性让我们倍感震撼。"
韩曾指出，新沉积层中已发掘的化石仅占其数万件化石的一小部分。它们清晰描绘了辛斯克灭绝事件后早寒武纪深海环境中生命的样貌。
由于这批化石极具生物多样性，且代表古生物学家知之甚少的深海区域，它有助于完善关于地球所有现代动物门类进化路径的假说。这些新化石正揭示海洋碳循环的起源、洋流如何连接全球两端食物网，以及驱动生态系统演变为如今复杂形态的力量。
"这些化石精美绝伦，"圣塔菲研究所古生物学家、进化生物学家道格·欧文评价道。他未参与此项发现，但与韩曾有合作。"它们真是美不胜收的标本。"
所有图片由中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所韩曾提供。
英文来源：
A Treasure Trove of Cambrian Fossils Rewrites the Story of Early Life
Han Zeng/Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Roughly 540 million years ago, toward the start of the Cambrian Period, the planet was mostly ocean, and life was both alien and vaguely familiar. Small, phallic-looking worms rummaged through ocean-floor sediments while blind swimming beasts flung out whiplike tentacles to ensnare prey. Meanwhile, early versions of mollusks and sponges populated the seafloor as jellyfish floated above.
Shallow ocean waters and an increase in oxygen levels in Earth’s atmosphere triggered what we call the Cambrian explosion: the first major blossoming of modern biodiversity. Life forms of increasing complexity filled the seas, providing the evolutionary foundations for nearly every phylum alive today.
Then, around 513.5 million years ago, came the Sinsk event, the first known mass extinction of the Phanerozoic, our current geologic eon. As Earth’s tectonic plates shifted, huge volumes of volcanic gas and carbon dioxide transformed the atmosphere, sucking oxygen out of the oceans and devastating shallow-water environments.
Much of what scientists know about this period in Earth’s history comes from Charles Doolittle Walcott’s discovery of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia in 1909. The Burgess Shale is one of a small handful of Cambrian deposits that reach the level of Lagerstätten, a German term used to describe incredibly diverse and exceptionally preserved fossil sites. Sites that preserve soft-bodied organisms are even rarer because soft tissues decompose more easily, making these places especially useful for piecing together prehistoric ecosystems. Fossils from these most special locations not only show body outlines and external textures but also preserve details from appendages and internal organs, from eyes and gills to guts and nerve networks. Other notable Lagerstätten include the Chengjiang Fossil Site (China), Sirius Passet (Greenland), and Emu Bay Shale (Australia).
In 2026, a new Cambrian Lagerstätte entered the scene. Paleontologists in southern China uncovered a trove of some of the best-preserved Cambrian fossils to date — a massive collection of 8,681 fossils spanning 153 species — named the Huayuan biota. Many of the Huayuan fossils look similar, if not identical, to those in the Burgess Shale, indicating that these marine ecosystems were connected by global ocean currents. Crucially, because the Huayuan site postdates the Sinsk event and represents deeper parts of the ocean, the collection indicates that deep-water environments were a refuge for organisms during mass extinction.
Mark Belan/Quanta Magazine
To paleontologists’ delight, more than half of the species uncovered at the Huayuan site are new to science. “As we discovered more and more animal species in the field and in our lab, we were surprised by the extraordinary diversity of this soft-bodied biota,” said study author Han Zeng, head of the Chengjiang Paleontological Station and a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zeng says that what’s been uncovered in the new deposit is only a fraction of the tens of thousands of other fossils there. They reveal a clearer picture of what life looked like in the early Cambrian’s deep marine environment after the Sinsk extinction.
Because this collection is so biodiverse and represents a part of the world that paleobiologists have understood little about — the deep seas — it can help them refine hypotheses about how all modern animal phyla on Earth evolved. These new fossils are yielding clues about the origins of oceanic carbon cycling, how ocean currents connected food webs on opposite sides of the globe, and the forces that drove ecosystems to become as complex as they are today.
“These are just exquisite fossils,” said Doug Erwin, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the Santa Fe Institute who was not involved in the discovery but collaborates with Zeng. “They’re really beautiful specimens.”
All images courtesy of Han Zeng/Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.