Discovered the world's oldest animal

Otavia antiqua may be our oldest ancestor

Fossil Otavia antiqua

Our oldest evolutionary ancestor has been found by researchers at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He was a microscopic organism like sponges, and was found in very old African stones. If confirmed, the body will be 100 million years older than the oldest animal found so far.

The body, called Otavia antiqua, was discovered inside a Navy rock 760 million years ago in Namibia, the researchers said, may have been the first multicellular animal to emerge on the planet. This means that all animal life, from dinosaurs to man, may be descended from him.

There were hundreds of fossils of the animal, the size of grains of sand. According to the researchers, they must have lived in calm waters and feeding on bacteria and algae abundant in the region. His body was shaped like a tube and feed it through pores in its interior, where the food would be absorbed directly into the cells.

Source Galileu.