Scientists have named the first animals on Earth

Now it is generally accepted that Dickinsonia was an animal, at the moment extinct.

More than 550 million years ago the oceans were full of flat, soft-bodied creatures that feed on microbes and algae and can grow the same size as bathmate.

Today, researchers from the University of California riverside study of new fossils to unravel the mysteries of this early life.

In its latest study, Scott Evans, graduate of the Department of Earth Sciences, and Mary Droser, Professor of paleontology, show that the fossil animal dickinsonia develops a complex, strictly regulated manner, using the same genetic Toolkit for modern animals.

This study helps to understand Dickinson in the early evolution of animal life and demonstrates how to grow a large, mobile sea creature. Dickinsonia was flat oval creature size from a few centimeters to a few feet and marked by a number of raised strips, known as modules on its surface. These animals are interesting to paleontologists because they are the first to become large and difficult to move and form a community, but about whom little is known.

For many years, scientists have debated the taxonomic status Dickinsonia – placing it in the fungus, marine worms and jellyfish, to name a few. Now it is generally accepted that Dickinsonia was an animal, at the moment extinct.

paradox