An eternity later: Sponge fossils may be earliest animal on Earth | Daily Sabah
A geologist in Canada may have just discovered traces of the earliest known animal life on Earth in the northwestern region of the country, giving a glimpse of the humble dawn of life that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature said. Around a billion years ago, a region of northwest Canada now defined by steep mountains was a prehistoric marine environment where the remains of ancient sponges may be preserved in mineral sediment, the paper says. Geologist Elizabeth Turner discovered the rocks in a remote region of the Northwest Territories accessible only by helicopter, where she has been excavating since the 1980s. Thin sections of rock contain three-dimensional structures that resemble modern sponge skeletons. "I believe these are ancient sponges – only this type of organism has this type of network of organic filaments," said Joachim Reitner, a geobiologist and expert in sponges at Germany's University of G...
