Scientists Discover Fossil of an Early Aquatic Animal Predator From 560 Million Years in Earth's Primitive Past

An ancient impression on rock turned out to be an early aquatic animal predator that lived in the primitive past way back 560 million years, discovered recently.

The fossilized remnants showed the outline of an exoskeleton with a robust tubular structure and tentacles for catching prey, similar to several modern-day marine animals. Scientists figured out that it was a predatory animal due to its contrasting appearance to its neighbors.

Resembling Common Sea Creatures From the Past

It resembled a relative of corals, anemones, and jellyfish found in a sediment layer dated 20 million years before similar Cnidaria were expected to have originated, reported Science Alert.

According to Oxford University Museum of Natural History paleontologist Frankie Dunn, it is unlike anything else discovered in the fossil record at that time, per the British Geological Survey.

In comparison to fossils from this period, he continued, their extinct body plans are confusingly related to contemporary creatures.

With tightly packed tentacles waving around in the water collecting passing food as coral and sea anemones do now, this one definitely has a skeleton.

In 2007, a group of British Geological Society researchers retrieved debris from a slab from the Bradgate formation in Charnwood Forest, a well-known fossil location just outside of Leicester.

An Example of Ancient Marine Life

It is estimated to be between 557 and 562 million years old, a long time in millennia. This epoch is characterized by an explosion of adaptability that resulted in the strangest animals with the highest biodiversity that existed until these experimental body designs were generalized by evolution during the Cambrian Explosion.

When the researchers were looking for preserved impressions to investigate, they chose this specific remnant of ancient life because it was less alien than others. Even too similar to what is currently alive in the seas is this early aquatic animal predator that existed in seas 560 million years ago.

This is the first documented 20-centimeter-long predatory cnidarian, and it looks remarkably similar to what comparable species do now on coral reefs while seizing prey.

The Cambrian Explosion, according to Dunn, was extraordinary because it fixed the morphology of living animal groupings for the next half billion years.

According to research, the bodies of cnidarians such as corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones were determined to have been from 20 million years ago. It raises more questions about what caused the enormous diversity at the time.

Evolution in the Ediacaran Epoch

It was a brief but eccentric period in Earth's history, featuring fossils of species that are strange to us today. The discovery of fossils implies that the evolution of contemporary animals has begun. Cnidarians evolved here during the Cambrian period.

Scientists named it Auroralumina (dawn lantern) to identify it as a genus since it resembled a flaming torch. However, it was eventually dubbed Attenboroughii in honor of Sir David Attenborough.

It was similar to other early Cambrian cnidarians with similar architecture, but it was distinct with a robust yet smooth exoskeleton and no fancy features.

Dunn noted that it is the earliest known animal with a skeleton so far, but it holds the key to how more complex lifeforms emerged after the Cambrian Explosion, mentioned in a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Auroralumina Attenboroughii was an early aquatic animal predator that is a Cnidarian; it lived 560 million years ago and had a skeleton developed by other creatures as they evolved.