This is the oldest known predator in Earth’s history
Its name honors Sir David Attenborough
Paleontologists have discovered the fossil of the oldest known predator in Earth’s history. This first-of-its-kind 560-million-year-old specimen was discovered in Charnwood Forest, near Leicester, England, a site known to scientists for its wealth of fossils.
It was named Auroralumina attenboroughii in honor of Sir David Attenborough, while the first compound of its name means in Latin ” the lantern of the dawn ” because of its resemblance to a torch.
The discovery raises questions about when modern animal species appeared on Earth.
It is widely accepted that modern animal species such as jellyfish appeared 540 million years ago during the Cambia explosion, but this predator goes back another 20 million years. It is the oldest creature with a skeleton that we know of. So far we’ve only found one, but it’s amazing that there must be more out there, holding the key to when complex life began on Earth.
In 2007 the team of paleontologists spent a week cleaning a 100 square meter rock surface with toothbrushes and squeegees. They recorded over 1,000 fossils but one stood out from the crowd.
This is very different from other fossils in Charnwood Forest and around the world. The rest from this era do not have clear body designs and it is not clear how they relate to animals. This clearly has a skeleton, with thick tentacles that would float in the water catching passing food, like corals and sea anemones today. It’s unlike anything else we’ve found in the fossil record so far.
The ancient rocks at Charnwood are very similar to those we find in the depths of the oceans, near volcanic islands. All the surface fossils were near the bottom and were swept in the same direction by a volcanic ash flow that flowed down to the underwater foothills of the volcano. All but one, A. attenboroughii. It appears oddly inclined and has lost its base, so it was probably washed there by shallower water.
The rock is between 557 and 562 million years old. The fossil is 20 centimeters long and looks like other cnidarians of the time, except for the fact that it has a durable exoskeleton.
The research was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution .
