Animals may have evolved 200 million years earlier than we thought
New research suggests that animal life may have evolved 200 million years earlier than previously thought, potentially predating the Cambrian Period. By analyzing microfossils from Mongolia, scientists are challenging the assumption that the absence of fossils in older deposits proves the absence of animal life.
Why it matters
This discovery forces a re-evaluation of the timeline of evolutionary history and the reliability of the fossil record in determining the origins of complex life.
New research suggests animals may have evolved up to 200 million years before they first appear clearly in the fossil record, challenging a key assumption scientists have used to estimate when animal life began.
A study led by the University of Oxford suggests the earliest animals may have existed hundreds of millions of years before the first unmistakable animal fossils appear. The findings, published Oct. 2 in Science Advances , indicate that animals could have originated deep in the Neoproterozoic Era, possibly before some of the most severe ice ages in Earth's history.
The research could reshape scientists' understanding of a major evolutionary puzzle. Animals seem to appear relatively abruptly in the fossil record shortly before the Cambrian Period (539 to 487 million years ago), even though other lines of evidence have long suggested their evolutionary story began much earlier.
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