The discovery of 900 million-year-old sponge fossils in Canada is probably the oldest animal fossil

According to the Central News Agency, researchers found deep-sea sponge fossils in the mountains of Canada's northwest region, nearly 900 million years ago. If the reasoning is correct, these fossils will push the origin of the earth's animals forward by about 300 million years.

In the rugged mountainous terrain of Canada's Northwest Territories, researchers have found sponge fossils that inhabit pristine reefs formed by bacteria, fossil sponges dating back about 890 million years, which may give a glimpse into the origins of animals on Earth.

On the 28th local time, a Canadian researcher said that these fossils dating back to the Neoproterozoic, body microstructure seems to be. Unlike deep-sea sponges, which resemble the Mediterranean bath sponges or bathing horn bone sponges that exist today.

If read correctly, these may be the oldest fossils of animals, about 300 million years before the fossils previously discovered.

Turner, a geologist at Laurentian University in Canada who conducted the study, said: "It is not surprising that the earliest evolutionary organisms were likely to be sponge-like, because sponges are the most basic animal type in terms of both today and the fossil record." The study was published in the journal Nature.

The Earth was formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, and the earliest life forms emerged hundreds of millions of years later as bacteria-like single-celled marine organisms; complex life evolution occurred relatively late in Earth's history.

There has been much debate about the timing and form of the first appearance of primary animal life. An organic fossil with mysterious ribs and a pancake-like shape called Dickinsonia appeared about 575 million years ago and is considered a candidate for the oldest known animal.

Turner believes that animals evolved much earlier than the extant fossil record suggests.

When people think of animals, the first thing that comes to mind may not be a sponge. But sponges, aquatic invertebrates that inhabit the seabed and have soft, porous bodies and endoskeletons, are probably among the most successful animal populations.

If these fossils were indeed some kind of sponge, the timing of their appearance would indicate that the evolution of Earth's oldest animals predates two predisposing events that are generally considered to be the emergence of animal life.

One such event was the moment of an atmospheric oxygen surge in Earth's history, about 830 million to 540 million years ago, and the other event was when the Earth froze or at least partially frozen and the temperature plummeted, occurring about 720 million to 635 million years ago.

These fossils predate the oldest known sponge fossils by about 350 million years. Turner notes that according to genetic studies, sponges first appeared at about the same time as these fossils.

Source: China News Network