Nottinghamshire scientists have discovered a 560-million-year-old fossil believed to be the world's earliest animal predator. Researchers at the British Geological Survey (BGS), based in Keyworth, identified the specimen, which is related to the group that includes corals, jellyfish and anemones, as the first of its kind.
The palaeontologists who discovered it have named it ‘Auroralumina attenboroughii‘ in honour of Sir David Attenborough. The first part of the name recalls the Latin for 'dawn lantern'.
It was generally thought that modern groups such as jellyfish appeared 540 million years ago. But the fossil, which was uncovered by BGS in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, in 2007, predates that by 20 million years.
