Most people probably don't even know how to pronounce the word tíng, but they used to be the ubiquitous creatures of Earth's oceans.
It is a class of tiny, single-celled protists that live in the Paleozoic ocean, belonging to the order Foraminifera, which has a total of 13 superfamilys, with a very wide variety of species, and there are 290 families under the endothyraceae alone. Their size is very small, the shell of calcite is usually only 5-10 mm long, the smallest is less than 1 mm, and the large one is only about 5 cm, but some species with shell lengths of up to 14 cm are the largest foraminifera ever.
Foraminifera fossil slices | Strekeisen / Wikimedia Commons
The "spindle" of the family's prosperity
The order first appeared in the Landafric Steps of the Early Silurian Period 444 to 426 million years ago, when the ordovician mass extinction had just ended, rising global temperatures led to glacier melting, sea levels rose, and coral reefs thrived in sunny, warm and shallow seas, from the carapace up to 9 meters, like the swimming telephone pole "old ruler" Corner Stone Cameroceras to the "old ancestor" of the Chordata Phylum, The Momoytius, A variety of entirely new animals appeared in the Silurian oceans, replacing the declining Ordovician fauna.
The early shell is a simple flat spiral structure, the late shape of the shaft is diverse, most of them are smooth spindle-shaped, the middle is thick, the two ends are sharp, and the Chinese translation name of "䗴" is also derived from this: In 1829, Fischer de Waldheim named fusulina, and its root fusu is the greek meaning of spindle; Mr. Li Siguang, the founder of modern geology in China, gave the "筳" referring to the "bamboo tool used for rolling silk in ancient spinning". The character 䗴 was created next to the insect character, which was first used in the 1934 paper "The Family of Northern China".
Li Siguang's head, located in the Geological Museum of China
A 2017 study showed that the shell of the caterpillar presents a complex multi-layered structure under an electron microscope, a unique structure that shows that the order can coexist with single-celled algae, cyanobacteria or other microorganisms that can perform photosynthesis, and provide energy for themselves through photosynthesis; this "stunt" that first evolved in the foraminifera phylum may be the secret to the longevity of the echia.
Fossils of the order are stored in the | of Li Siguang Memorial Hall in Huangzhou City, Hubei Province Huangchenhai / Wikimedia Commons
The extinction event at the end of the Landafric order wiped out 50% of the species of trilobites and 80% of the tooth-shaped stone Conodont in the world's oceans. However, the rakes survived this extinction, and not only did the species become more and more prosperous over time, but also became larger and larger, and the forms became ever-changing: in addition to the spindle-shaped "basic model", convex mirror-shaped, disc-shaped, spherical and cylindrical shells appeared. Fossils of the order have been found on continents around the world except Antarctica, which is enough to glimpse their prosperity at that time. He also survived two other Extinction Events in the Silurian Period, and the family grew more prosperous.
Tartars are not stones, but the teeth of small jawless fish. They are "relatives" of extant lamprey and hagfish, 1–40 cm long, with slender, segmented and symmetrical bodies with huge eyes and sharp serrated teeth. At that time, the ocean mainly preyed on zooplankton, including the order, and was once very popular.
Tooth-shaped stone | Derek E.G. Briggs / Wikimedia Commons
Vigorous extinction
The time came to the Weixian steps of the Carboniferous Period, 346.7-330.9 million years ago, when the eyes in the ocean reached their peak. Compared with the Silurian, the Sea of the Carboniferous Period was more vibrant, full of many strange prehistoric "sea monsters".
At that time, the main large vertebrates in the ocean were various full-headed suborder cartilaginous fish, and at the top of the marine food chain was eugeneodontida, represented by the scissor-toothed shark Edestu. The largest scissor sharks are more than 6.7 meters long, with scissor-like upper and lower jaws and jagged teeth, showing that they are terrifying predators. The "old man" of the former dynasty such as the trilobite has not left the scene. In the oceans of that time, it occupied the same ecological niche as today's close relatives of the foraminifera phylum, and served as the cornerstone of the food chain, feeding countless large and small marine animals.
Helicoprion, a spiny tooth shark of Eugene tooth order, has a strange spiral tooth | James St. John / Flickr
No dynasty can prosper forever, and The Eye is no exception. At the end of the Permian period, about 251.9 million years ago, a series of violent eruptions occurred in volcanoes located in the region of present-day Siberia. Large amounts of carbon dioxide released by volcanic activity have led to severe climate change, triggering massive warming, hypoxia and acidification of the world's oceans. Such changes are undoubtedly fatal to plankton living on the surface of the ocean, especially forporangos such as the order, which obtain energy through photosynthesis and have a shell made of calcium carbonate.
Fossils of the order in limestone | James St. John / Wikimedia Commons
They have difficulty forming shells in increasingly acidic seawater, and symbiotic photosynthetic microorganisms may also escape from body tissues due to excessive water temperatures, as are the case with corals today that are albinized due to excessive sea temperatures. Once the marine zooplankton represented by the order of the order disappears, just like a tall building has been cut off from the foundation, the animals on the upper level of the food pyramid will inevitably perish because they have lost their food sources.
The mass extinction at the end of the Permian was the worst extinction event in the history of life on Earth, with 81 percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrates disappearing from Earth forever, including the last order. The glorious movement of life has thus ended forever in a terrible disaster that destroyed the world and the earth. Earth's biosphere, on the other hand, took 3 to 5 million years to regain its pre-extinction life until the Middle Triassic.
Full body portrait of Li Siguang, located at Chongqing University
In the modern world's oceans, there are still a large number of foraminifera phylum organisms. Like the extinct order, they are tiny and numerous, and serve as the cornerstone of the ocean food pyramid to nurture countless marine animals, from dense schools of fish to giant whales. However, they are also very sensitive to subtle changes in sea temperature and pH, and are particularly vulnerable to short-term climate upheavals. At a time when climate change has become a serious challenge for all mankind, looking back at the process of moving from prosperity to extinction may give us some inspiration as we face an increasingly uncertain future.