26 jul 2022 om 05:44
A 560-million-year-old fossil of the creature researchers say was the first predator is named after British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
By: our news editorsThe creature was given the name Auroralumina attenboroughii. According to scientists, it is the oldest creature with a skeleton. It’s related to the group that includes corals, jellyfish and anemones, they say.
“It is generally believed that modern animal groups such as jellyfish arose 540 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion,” said Phil Wilby, a paleontologist with the British Geological Survey. “But this predator dates back to 20 million years earlier.”
He called it “extremely exciting” to know that the fossil may be one of several fossils that provide insight into “the origin of complex life on Earth.”
The fossil was found in Charnwood Forest near Leicester in central England, where Attenborough used to hunt for fossils. The 96-year-old said he was “really delighted”.
Frankie Dunn, of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, said the specimen was very different from other fossils found in Charnwood Forest and around the world.
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Unlike most Cambrian fossils, this specimen is clearly skeletal, with densely packed tentacles that swung around in the water to catch passing food, as corals and sea anemones do today,” Dunn said.