A New Taxonomy to Prehistoric Life. 525 million year old fossil. Amazing. How do they do that anyway? How do they figure all that stuff out?

You really want to know? Carbon dating and all that stuff doesn't work on fossils this old. When scientists 'age' a fossil it is by the 'rock' that it is found in. In other words, a rock that is KNOWN to have existed 525 million years ago that also containts these fossils can only have those fossils within the rock layer if they lived at that time. How do geologists who 'age' rock know the rock's age? By issues of Magnetic layers of rock found in stratigraphy elsewhere on Earth. When a fossil like this is 'aged' or 'dated' the entire Earth history and it's rock structure including magnetic evidence and the changing of the poles is examined in evidence. It is complicated yet simple but it is ALWAYS thorough !

Cool stuff.

This drawing of this fossil is an animals that lived in water. It has 'uni-fins' that flutter around it's central body cavity. So, more than likely the 'rock' it was found in was a mudstone or sandstone. It might be a slate or shale as well. Those type of rocks are all formed by millenium of water erosion and pressure on the ocean floor. The fossils were trapped in the layers of the rock and petrified.

A fossil this age was not found in actuality as the it already decomposed but it's petrified impression was left behind.