Cambrian Comeback: 91 New Species Revealed in China After Earth's First Mass Extinction

In a Chinese quarry, researchers uncovered the Huayuan biota dating to about 513 million years ago—over 50,000 fossils across 153 species, 91 of which are new—preserving soft tissues like guts, nerves, and eyes. This Konservat Lagerstätte shows a rapid ecological rebound within roughly 1.5 million years after the first mass extinction, with deep-water refuges and larval dispersal linking Cambrian communities across oceans to later deposits such as the Burgess Shale.