Oldest Known Animal Discovered

[IrritatorRaji]

Paper (paywall / need account):
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/1246


558m-year-old fossils identified as oldest known animal

Is summed up quite well in an article written by The Guardian:

"Oval-shaped Dickinsonia lifeform existed at least 20m years before the 'Cambrian explosion' of animal life"

"The new fossils, of the genus Dickinsonia, are the remains of an oval-shaped lifeform and part of an ancient and enigmatic group of organisms called Ediacarans. These creatures are some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth, but their place within the evolutionary tree has long puzzled scientists. Suggestions as to what they were have ranged from lichens to failed evolutionary experiments to bacterial colonies."



"Now, by identifying the remains of organic matter on newly discovered Ediacaran fossils as ancient cholesterol, the scientists have been able to confirm Dickinsonia was an animal, which makes it the oldest known animal."

" "It is the exact type and composition of that fat that was the giveaway that Dickinsonia was in fact an animal," said Jochen Brocks of the Australian National University, one of the authors on the study. "

[Halichoeres]

Ah, the Ediacaran, when animals were just boogers on the seafloor.

[Faelrin]

Well good to that they finally understand what it was. Even if the multi cellular lifeforms were relatively simple back then, I still find them fascinating, and it is always interesting to see how far life has come since those days long gone.