Ancient Cement Preserved the World’s Strangest Fossils, Scientists Finally Know How

Ancient Cement Preserved the World’s Strangest Fossils, Scientists Finally Know How

Some of the world’s most mysterious fossils, soft-bodied creatures preserved in coarse sandstone, owe their survival to an unusual chemical process on the ancient seafloor. A recent study has revealed that authigenic clay minerals, not biological toughness, sealed these lifeforms in stone nearly 570 million years ago. The fossils that lived long before the age of dinosaurs, left no bones behind, and yet remain etched in stone belong to the Ediac…