A Canadian geologist might have just discovered fossils of sponges that date back 890 million years. This discovery might be 350 million years older than the oldest-found sponge fossils.
The fossils were found in rock samples, and it seems that may have existed in underwater reefs millions of years ago. These are the oldest fossils ever discovered.
Scientists have found out that sponges were more complicated than initially thought, but they didn’t really find enough fossilized sponges to prove the timeline. The fossils show like skeletons that are found in the modern sponges – known as keratose demosponges. These skeletons are made out of segments that look like the branches of a tree.
Elizabeth Turner, from the Laurentian University, stated that this discovery is quite intriguing, as it shows more about how animals and humans developed in time. She said: “We are animals. And we have a big brain, and we’re capable of wondering about stuff, and we wonder how we came to be. What happened before, and what was it like? How did it begin? This is really digging into that. I’m shaking up the apple cart.”
If the age turns out to be accurate, then it would be safe to say that the organisms were here, on Earth, way before scientists even believed there was enough oxygen to support animal life. It would mean they were here before the ice age on Earth.
Turner also talked about how this research could be seen by others, due to the idea that the first animals didn’t need that much oxygen to live. “So people may be not so comfortable with it.”
We’re one step forward in learning more about animals.
