TECTONIC plate movements half a billion years ago caused the extinction of an entire species, according to new research.
Scientists have been studying rock layers in Antarctica and southern Australia to find out more about this time period.
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Both regions formed a supercontinent called Gondwana during a period called the Cambrian.
This supercontinent is thought to have existed around 513 million years ago.
It was believed that the movement of tectonic plates beneath this continent would cause the mountains to fly and a large part of the continent to fall into the sea.
Researchers refer to the mass extinction associated with this as the Sinsk event.
It occurred between 540 million and 485 million years ago, according to Living Science.
New research on this event was published in the journal Science Advances.
Paul Myrow, a sedimentologist at Colorado College, was the study’s lead author.
“Strangely enough, it was tectonics that triggered the extinction,” he told Live Science.
Hyoliths and sponges called archaeocatids are said to have been the main victims during the extinction.
The small hyolite creatures had conical shells and many examples of these are available in fossil form.
Researchers have long debated why these creatures died, and the new study suggests Gondwana tectonics is to blame.
The archaeocytid reefs these creatures called home were destroyed when shifting tectonic plates changed the ocean, according to research.
Trilobite fossils have been studied to discover the timing of the extinction event.
Researchers can use trilobite fossils to determine the age of a rock.
The new study involved comparing trilobite fossils in Australia and Antarctica.
This helped reveal that the two places were once connected.
“Everything fell into place,” Myrow told Live Science.
“There was the same geological history throughout Australia as there was in Antarctica.”
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