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A new study confirmed that Dickinsonia, of Ediacaran biota, is the first confirmed animal to have walked on Earth. Researchers from ANU have discovered cholesterol molecules from fossils discovered in Russia. ( ANU TV | Youtube )
Scientists have found fat molecules believed to belong to the first confirmed animal existing about 550 million years ago.
Researchers at the Australian National University have discovered a well-preserved Dickinsonia fossil, with organic matter still intact, in a remote area of northwestern Russia near the White Sea. They call discovery a "game changer".
The results were published in the journal Science.
Dickinsonia Mystery
Dickinsonia, a creature resembling a jellyfish, has long been a headache for the scientific community. It has been classified as Ediacaran biocide, a now extinct life form that emerged from the seas 570 million years ago. The creatures of the Ediacaran biota are also the first complex life on Earth.
However, scientists have always found it difficult to determine exactly what the creature is. It has been classified as a mushroom, protist or animal, but nobody knows for sure.
The first animal
The last discovery ends all the debates. The Dickinsonia fossils recently unearthed by researchers contain a significant amount of cholesterol, a type of fat considered the "characteristic of animal life".
"The fossil fat now confirms Dickinsonia as the oldest known animal fossil, solving a decades-old mystery that has been the holy grail of paleontology," said Jochen Brocks, associate professor at ANU.
To study the fossil, the team of researchers has come up with a new approach to unlock the story that has been coded. While paleontologists typically study the structure of a fossil, UNA researchers have extracted molecules inside the fossil to achieve the breakthrough.
"Most of the rocks containing these fossils, like those of the Ediacara Hills in Australia, have been subjected to a lot of heat, a lot of pressure, and then they have been damaged," he said. There is Bobrovskiy, co-author of the study, "these are the rocks that paleontologists have studied for several decades, which explained why they were stuck on the issue of Dickinsonia's true identity."
Bobrovskiy also said that Dickinsonia and other fossils of Ediacaran biota have the key to understand the time between the world dominated by bacteria and the emergence of large animals, there are 540 million d & rsquo; Years, called "Cambrian explosion". The Cambrian explosion occurred when complex animals, as well as macroscopic organisms, began to dominate the fossil record of the entire world.
The discovery repels the Cambrian explosion a few million years earlier than expected. Professor Brocks added that large animals existed and were abundant 558 million years ago.
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