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.
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It is also believed to be the earliest creature to have a skeleton. "Most other fossils from this time have extinct body plans and it’s not clear how they are related to living animals," said Dr Frankie Dunn, of Oxford University, who carried out the study.
"This one clearly has a skeleton, with densely packed tentacles that would have waved around in the water capturing passing food, much like corals and sea anemones do today. It’s nothing like anything else we’ve found in the fossil record at the time."
Mr Attenborough said he was "truly delighted" to have the fossil named after himself. "When I was at school in Leicester I was an ardent fossil hunter," he reminisced.
"The rocks in which Auroralumina has now been discovered were then considered to be so ancient that they dated from long before life began on the planet. So I never looked for fossils there. A few years later a boy from my school found one and proved the experts wrong. He was rewarded by his name being given to his discovery. Now I have — almost — caught up with him and I am truly delighted."
A. attenboroughii, which stands at 20cm-tall, was imprinted on a large rock surface surrounded by more than 1000 other fossils. It was then dated at BGS’s headquarters in Keyworth.
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