(source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169555X1630126X )

Along the red line of this map you can see the North Estonian Klint. Above this red line there is the grey blue marked showing the Cambrian area along the Estonian coast and into Russia.

The diversity of geology of the Baltic sea is amazing.

 

Saaremaa island fossils. Jämaja bay.

 

 

Saaremaa island fossil found at Jämaja bay next to Jämaja kalmistu (graveyard) of a Brachiopod. Brachiopods lived in shells, they were one of the most common and populous  animals during the Cambrian period.

(source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Liospiriferina_rostrata_Noir.jpg)

 

 

Jämaja kalmistu was one of the most perfectly maintained graveyards I have ever been to. With many candles constantly kept lit at the graves right next to the shore, Estonians have a special regard for memory, especially it seemed on Saaremaa. The closeness of this place to a shore filled with fossils seemed like an apt reassuring reminder of the passing of time and the preservation of ephemeral past.

 

The Cambrian Period is part of the Paleozoic era. During this period the intensity of evolution that occurred is some of the largest to have ever happened. It is known as the Cambrian Explosion. The diversity of animals that appeared are directly linked to many of the groups of species today – like the chordates, which are animals with backbones, like us. Fossils of marine worms are the evidence for the earliest known animals with backbones.

The cause of such a dramatic increase in life on earth is not completely certain but would be to do with the change in amounts of oxygen due to climate change caused by algae and cyanobacteria radiations. The climate also warmed and sea levels rose creating more hospitable habitats.

The hard shelled species that emerged are also much more surely preserved in fossils as opposed to the previous soft bodied life, adding to the volume of evidence available. These hard shells also provided the frames for larger bodies to be supported and for better protection from predators so an increase in the breadth of the food chain.

The hard skeletons were formed from calcium carbonate that the animals took in from the water.

The amount of time that oxygen consuming life has been existing is astoundingly short. The impracticality and workload this puts on life to maintain itself is almost counterproductive. The perspective this offers I find reassuring, that we are not and will never be the ones in charge of life on earth or it’s fate; the persistence of the earth will long outlive us, even if it has to deal with the mess and damage we may leave behind.

To be using a material from this time stretches my mind beyond any scale I can comprehend. It is calming to know how small we are. The responsibility of using something so beautiful that has been made for me by the earth through so many years of compression of rock into silt and then clay. I need to plant some trees when the spring comes.

 

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