Animals may have evolved vastly earlier than fossil evidence suggests
A study led by the University of Oxford suggests that animal life may have evolved hundreds of millions of years earlier than the fossil record currently indicates. Researchers argue that the absence of fossils in ancient deposits like the Weng'an Biota does not definitively prove the absence of early animal life.
Why it matters
This research challenges established timelines of evolutionary history and forces a re-evaluation of how scientists interpret gaps in the fossil record.
edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Ediacaran sea floor, Namibia, Southwest Africa - 543 million years ago. Credit: Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford / Mighty Fossils. The earliest animals may have evolved hundreds of millions of years before their first unmistakable fossils appear in the fossil record, according to a new study led by the University of Oxford. The findings, published in Science Advances , suggest animals may have originated deep in the Neoproterozoic Era, even before some of the most extreme ice ages in Earth's history.
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