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Plants and Animals

Preserved Soft Tissues Link Some of the Oldest Animals and Modern Species

The first complex life forms appeared about 600 million years ago, it is known as Ediacaran Biota. Ever since their discovery, scientists have speculated that the connection between the idiosyncratic creature and later humans was in the families that survive to this day. The discovery of wonderfully preserved soft tissues in the rocks from Namibia led the explorers to conclude that a famous idiosyncratic life form was the ancestor of many surviving marine axillary.

Despite the many gaps, paleontologists can trace the lineage of most animals that survived back to the abrupt diversity of life known as the Cambrian eruption 540 million years ago. But before that, things are very deadly. The question of where the Cambrian animals came from is called “Darwin’s dilemma” because this man was so confused about what was before these forms. Scientists have been debating for years whether the remains of even older creatures found in the Ideas are even animals, and if so, what their relationship might be with more modern versions.

Namacalathus hermanastes represents the oldest animal we have ever found, including an ancient skeleton. We don’t know much about them, however, since only calcium carbonate has become a fossil of skeletons, leading to speculation about the soft tissues around us. Apart from these, there was little way to know whether Namacalathus was the ancestor of the Cambrian species or evolutionary. The discovery of a 547 million-year-old fossil bed in Namibia, where some soft tissue was stored in a pirate, probably changed that.

Namacalathus has been described as the shape of a “goblet-like” skeleton in scientific progress. In at least some cases the spine extends from the stem and cup. Examples have been found on four continents, but the size of the body around the goblet was not previously known. The paper announced the use of X-rays to reveal the intestines of some specimens stored between the body wall and the rock.

The published structures indicate the relationship with certain Cambrian worms that are considered to be the ancestors of the modern line. “These are exceptional fossils that give a glimpse of the biological affection of some of our oldest animals,” said Rachel Wood, a professor at the University of Edinburgh. “They help us identify the roots of the Cambrian eruption and the origins of modern animal groups. Such conservation opens up many new avenues of research into the history of life that were not possible before.”

The paper proposes “affection” between a large group of worms and filter feeders, with the exception of Namacalathus and lophotrochozoa, marine biologists. More famous lophotrochozoa are the mollusks, the phylum which includes the humble garden snails and the terrifying intelligent octopus.

The fossils described in the paper were only 4-12 millimeters (0.16-0.5 inches) across. Although other nomenclatures have been found to reach 25 millimeters (1 inch), it is actually a very fine start for the branches of the tree of life that today includes the giant squadron. Namacalathus, who studied here, was living on borrowed time. About two million years later, other Namibian fossils revealed a decline in bed species diversity, followed by the displacement of adiabatic organisms with the Cambrian species.

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