Science Alert has a story about the discovery of a new Cambrian lagerstatte in China. The site preserves an entire ecosystem in stunning detail. There are about 40 Cambrian sites worldwide that exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue. Add this newly discovered 512 million years old fossil site in Hunan, South China, named the Huayuan biota. Currently, 153 animal species are known, those animals span 16 major groups. The species diversity and preservation is said to rival the Canada’s Burgess Shale. The research was published in the journal Nature.

But it’s not just any Lagerstätte; a team led by paleontologist Maoyan Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has classified the Huayuan biota as a Burgess Shale-type (BST) Lagerstätte – the very rarest and finest type of fossil bed, where soft-bodied animals and delicate internal tissues are preserved as a rule, not an exception.

Earth’s Cambrian Period, which lasted from around 540 to 485 million years ago, was a time of great change for our planet. It was during this time that the first major diversification of animal life took place – the Cambrian explosion. But the tree of life was trimmed shortly after with the Sinsk extinction event, which may have been triggered by tectonic activity.

Thanks to a handful of BST Lagerstätten from around the Sinsk event, paleontologists have managed to reconstruct some of the effects it had on life on Earth. The Burgess Shale in the Canadian rockies is about 508 million years old; the Qingjiang biota and the Chengjiang biota, both in China, are about 518 million years old.