According to scientists, it is the oldest creature with a skeleton. The fossil was found in Charnwood Forest near Leicester in central England. Attenborough used to go there often to hunt for fossils. The 96-year-old presenter says he is “really delighted” with the honor bestowed on him.
“Modern animal groups, such as jellyfish, are believed to have emerged 540 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion,” said paleontologist Phil Wilby of the British Geological Survey. “But this predator dates from 20 million years earlier.”
Auroralumina attenboroughii caught food from the water with its fanning tentacles, and is therefore related to the group that includes corals, jellyfish and anemones. According to Wilby, the fossil provides ‘insight into the origin of complex life on Earth’. “Extremely exciting,” he calls that science.