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How We Came to Be: Scientists Get First Look at the Evolution of Early Complex Animals
- On Thursday, researchers published a study in the journal Science detailing more than 700 fossils discovered in southwestern China's Yunnan province, revealing complex, three-dimensional animals living 539 million years ago.
- Paleontologists previously believed Ediacaran animals lived two-dimensionally, but these specimens demonstrate advanced behaviors like traveling through water and eating, challenging earlier theories about the timeline of complex animal evolution.
- Gaorong Li, a paleontologist at Yunnan University, identified more than 180 "bugle worm" fossils and creatures with bilateral symmetry, providing rare evidence that major animal lineages diversified before the Cambrian explosion.
- Oxford University paleontologist Frankie Dunn noted the findings provide a "first window" into how the modern biosphere formed, while Cambridge University researcher Emily Mitchell called the paper "absolutely fascinating."
- These findings suggest "rocks and the clocks are in closer agreement" regarding evolutionary timelines, potentially resolving debates about the Cambrian explosion, though Jonathan Antcliffe at the University of Lausanne questioned the evidence.
49 Articles
49 Articles
Los Angeles Times
Independent EspañolRecently discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of the moment when Earth made a crucial transition from unrecognizablely simple plants and animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us.
Humans’ closest invertebrate ancestors are older than was thought – how we discovered the fossils that show this
Artist's impression of Earth's earliest complex animals during the late Ediacaran period – before the 'Cambrian explosion'. Xiaodong Wang, CC BY-SAAnimal life is extraordinarily diverse and complex, having colonised almost all environments on Earth – from hostile hydrothermal vents in the deep sea to the skies across our continents. But the planet was not always teeming with complex animal life. For the first 3.7 billion years after it originate…
Spectacular fossil treasure trove pushes back origins of complex animals
A newly discovered fossil site in southwest China has transformed our understanding of how complex animal life emerged on Earth, revealing that many key animal groups had already evolved before the start of the Cambrian Period. The study, led by researchers at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History and Department of Earth Sciences as well as Yunnan University in China, has been published in Science.
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