Reveal shock from strange creatures 70 million years old: Earth rotates differently than the present

A sample from the dinosaur period stunned scientists when it showed that one day at the end of the Cretaceous was only 23 and a half hours long, because the Earth was spinning faster than it is now.

The team of scientists led by Dr. Niels de Winter at Vrije Brussels University (Belgium) analyzed an ancient fossil mollusk called Torreites sanchezi , which has a shell quite similar to modern clams. It is the fossil shell, with growth rings that are much like trees but much smaller, revealed when they were alive, a year long . 372 days.

The 70 million-year-old fossil of the Earth shows that the Earth once rotated faster than now, only 23.5 hours a day!- (photo courtesy of the team)

But the rate at which Earth orbits the Sun remains the same, which means that a year is not longer, but a shorter day, about 23.5 hours instead of 24 hours like today. It is still unclear whether the Earth unexpectedly turned faster at that time or if it had rotated so quickly or more before reaching a steady speed of 24 hours a day - 365 days a year today.

According to Dr. de Winter, a geochemist, the evidence also reveals the age of the creature: 70 million years, the end of the Cretaceous period, the era of dinosaurs' pre-extinction due to natural disasters. agar 66 million years ago.

The magical shell also showed that the ocean temperature was very warm at that time, 40 degrees Celsius in the summer and over 30 degrees Celsius in the winter. The creature was found singly in a shallow tropical sea in modern-day Omani, and has a lifespan of up to 9 years.

At that time, this species and similar molluscs dominated the position of today's reefs, before disappearing with dinosaurs during asteroid impact.

To "read" these incredible information, the scientists shone a laser on fossils, creating holes with a diameter of only 10 micrometers, the equivalent of . one red blood cell, and then feces. analysis of growth rings as well as trace elements within them.

The research has just been published in the scientific journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.

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