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Scientists involved in a groundbreaking new study have highlighted the earliest signs of molecular life, revealing that multicellular animals were still alive and well alive 635 million years ago, 100 million years ago. years before their existence. However, the proofs of this life are not passed by the bones, but by very special chemical evidence.
As reverse According to reports, international scientists have discovered a new biomarker from the Animalia Kingdom, dating from 660 to 635 million years old, which is the oldest and most definitive proof of found animals.
This biomarker has been observed in oils and rocks in India, Oman and Siberia. It is known as 26-methylstigmastane, a steroid compound. Nowadays, such a marker is only visible in the demosponges, and the new research is proof that these demosponges lived hundreds of millions of years ago, according to the first author Alex Zumberge.
"This biomarker of steroids is the first evidence that demosponges, and thus multicellular animals, thrived in ancient seas 635 million years ago."
Currently, demospongia is considered to be the most diverse variety of sponges in the world, with no fewer than 8,000 types of sponges already counted. These invertebrates have a rich and vibrant color and are able to reproduce asexually and sexually, allowing them to thrive. Although sponges have skeletons, they are not usually left behind in terms of discoverable fossils. Fortunately for scientists, stable biomarkers are still available to prove their existence 635 million years ago.
The oldest evidence of animal life is changing The chronology of the evolution of the body: https://t.co/LmBMhKUaLR
– Inverse (@inversedotcom) October 15, 2018
This new study is crucial to the extent that it determined that 100 million years before the Cambrian explosion, 540 million years ago, there were multicellular animals. Scientists have already been convinced that before this period, all organisms that could have existed would almost certainly have been single-celled creatures of an inherently simple nature. However, this research has shown that animals similar to those of today lived happily in the seas of different regions of the world, and this can now be proved by chemical analysis rather than by the study of fossils.
Prior to this discovery, what was believed to be the oldest of animal fossils, calculated as a streaked oval of 558 million years ago, was discovered in organic materials preserved for hundreds of years. millions of years. It is now strongly suspected that the varieties of the newly studied variety could have been alive during the cryogenic period, which dates back to 720 to 635 million years ago.
The new study that demonstrates the existence of multicellular animals 635 million years ago was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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