Scientists have finally solved a centuries-old riddle in the evolution of life on earth, revealing what the first animals to make skeletons looked like. This discovery was possible due to an exceptionally well-preserved collection of fossils discovered in eastern Yunnan Province, China. The results
Proceedings of the Royal Society BDuring an event called the Cambrian Explosion around 550-520 million years ago, the first animals to build hard and robust skeletons appear suddenly in the fossil record in a geological blink of an eye. Many of these early fossils are simple hollow tubes ranging from a few millimeters to many centimeters in length.
These are features found today only in modern jellyfish, anemones, and their close relatives , organisms whose soft parts are extremely rare in the fossil record. The study shows that these simple animals were among the first to build the hard skeletons that make up much of the known fossil record.would have looked similar to modern scyphozoan jellyfish polyps, with a hard tubular structure anchored to the underlying substrate.
The fossil was found at a site in the Gaoloufang section in Kunming, eastern Yunnan Province, China. Here, anaerobic conditions limit the presence of bacteria that normally degrade soft tissues in fossils. PhD student Guangxu Zhang, who collected and discovered the specimens, said: “The first time I discovered the pink soft tissue on top of atube, I was surprised and confused about what they were.
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