This fossil could be Earth's earliest known animal
Fox News
A sponge-like fossil dating back approximately 890 million years may be the oldest prehistoric animal on Earth.
Researchers said that if "millimetric-to-centimetric vermiform-microstructured organism" is the fossilized tissue of keratose sponges, "the material described here would represent the oldest body-fossil evidence of animals known to date, and would provide the first physical evidence that animals emerged before the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event and survived through the glacial episodes of the Cryogenian period." While most major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record during the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, the research presents evidence of sponge fossils that could be 350 million years older.More Related News