The findings may represent the oldest animal fossils discovered, Laurentian University professor Elizabeth Turner said in an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Scientists have estimated that sponges existed before more complicated creatures more than 540 million years ago; however, there’s a lack of fossilized sponges discovered by scientists that would prove the timeline for the early creatures.The fossils discovered by Turner resemble skeletons found in some modern sponges known as keratose demosponges.If the age of the fossils discovered by Turner proves true, the organisms would have lived on Earth before there was enough oxygen to support animal life and before widespread ice ages, according to scientists. “We know there has to have been a time, an episode or an interval of hidden evolution in animals prior to 540 million years ago,” Turner said