Animal life could have originated on Earth up to 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought. That’s according to a group of scientists, who say their theory is supported by new evidence found in rocks in Gabon, West Africa. According to them, however, these organisms lived only in the then inland sea, did not spread globally and eventually died out, writes the BBC server.
Most experts agree that animals first appeared on Earth roughly 635 million years ago. However, an international team working in Gabon claims to have discovered evidence of conditions suitable for animals as early as 2.1 billion years ago in the rocks there. BBC notes that study published in the professional journal Precambrian Research is a departure from the traditional concept of the development of multicellular organisms.
The discovery, of as yet unexplained origin, comes from Franceville, Gabon, where experts identified layers of sediments that could be made up of petrified animal organisms ten years ago. With the help of deep boreholes in the surrounding rocks, scientists found traces of oxygen and phosphorus, which could serve as food for early organisms.
If the theory of early animal life is correct, the billion-year-old life form resembled today’s slime or slime – amoeba-like organisms, study leader Ernest Chi Fru of Cardiff University in Wales told the BBC.
“I’m not against the idea that there were more complex nutrients 2.1 billion years ago, but I’m not convinced that this could lead to the kind of diversification that would create complex organisms,” says Graham Shields, an expert at UCL University of London, who did not participate in the research.
“We’re saying, look, we’ve got fossils, we’ve got oxygen, that’s what fueled the first complex living organisms,” reports Chi Fru. According to him, the same process is observable 635 million years ago.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
