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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Vishwam Sankaran

Fossils may have just revealed oldest ever known jellyfish species

Reconstruction by Christian McCall

Scientists have discovered the oldest swimming jellyfish species that ever lived over 500 million years ago, an advance that sheds more light on the origin of the earliest animal species on Earth.

The new species named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis belongs to a group of animals called medusozoans – or animals producing medusae – which includes modern-day box jellies, hydroids, and jellyfish.

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