{"id":788,"date":"2018-06-03T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T11:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/natgeokids.com?p=788"},"modified":"2018-11-07T12:36:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T12:36:50","slug":"scientists-discover-earliest-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/ie\/discover\/animals\/prehistoric-animals\/scientists-discover-earliest-animal\/","title":{"rendered":"Have scientists discovered the earliest EVER animal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earliest<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists at Edinburgh University think they may have discovered one of the first complex animals to have ever lived on Earth.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Their find shows that these creatures lived millions of years earlier than previously thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fossils<\/strong> of the teeny marine animal, known as Namacalathus hermanastes<\/strong>, were found in Namibia<\/strong>, Southern Africa<\/strong>, back in 2000<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the scientists who\u2019ve been studying it think it could be the earliest example of an animal with a complex skeleton<\/strong> (similar to those you might find in today’s sea creatures).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was believed that the earliest known animals began life in the Cambrian Period<\/strong> \u2013 541 million<\/strong> years ago \u2013 but we now know that the Namacalathus were thriving nine million<\/strong> years earlier in the Ediacaran Period, 550 million<\/strong> years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure you check out the ocean’s weirdest creatures<\/a>!<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Edinburgh-led team studied perfectly-preserved fossils of the Namacalathus. They learned that the species had a rigid skeleton made of calcium carbonate<\/strong> \u2013 the same hard material that makes up the shells of sea creatures today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis fossil has been known for a long time, and was assumed to have been a primitive animal,\u201d says geologist Rachel Wood<\/strong>, from Edinburgh University. \u201cBut this study suggests that it was, in fact, more advanced. We have suspected that these complex animals were present in the Ediacaran, but this study provides the first proof.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Namacalathus had a ball-shaped body and long, worm-like stalk that it used to attach itself to the sea floor. Many of today’s animals could count the Namacalathus as their ancestors – cool!<\/em><\/p>\n

Creatures before the Namacalathus were primitive beings like sponges<\/strong> and coral<\/strong> that don’t have skeletons.<\/p>\n

The discovery has changed scientists’ belief that most major animal groups evolved during the Cambrian Period.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favourite prehistoric animal? Let us know by leaving a comment below!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at Edinburgh University think they may have discovered one of the first complex animals to have ever lived on Earth. Their find shows that these creatures lived millions of years earlier than previously thought. Fossils of the teeny marine animal, known as Namacalathus hermanastes, were found in Namibia, Southern Africa, back in 2000. But … Continue reading Have scientists discovered the earliest EVER animal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[226,134,132],"christmas-category":[],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prehistoric-animals","tag-animals","tag-fossils","tag-prehistoric","countries-ireland","countries-united-kingdom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHave scientists discovered the earliest EVER animal? - National Geographic Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientists at Edinburgh University discover earliest ever animal: The Namacalathus, just beat the previously known oldest animal by a whole 9 million years!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Have scientists discovered the earliest EVER animal? 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