Thursday 28 June 2018

GOTLAND: SWEDISH TERRENEUVIAN

Gotland: Swedish Island in the Baltic Sea
Gotland, a large Swedish island in the Baltic Sea is a rich source of Cambrian brachiopod fossils and home of the Mästermyr chest, an ancient tool chest from the Viking Age (793–1066 AD) a time when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by sea for trade, raids, colonization, and conquest, not unlike their sea dwelling brethren.

Brachiopods are one of the few groups of marine animals that have a relatively complete extant to fossil record from their sporadic modern distribution all the way back to the Terreneuvian in the early Cambrian.