The real paleo diet: researchers find traces of world’s oldest meal in 550m-year-old fossil

The Kimberella fossil that researchers believe shows evidence of the earliest known animal meal. Photograph: Dr Ilya Bobrovskiy/GFZ-Potsdam

The ancient dietary habits of Earth’s oldest animals, which lived more than 550m years ago, have been uncovered by an international team of researchers.

Scientists who have analysed ancient fossils of Ediacaran biota – life forms that existed between 538.8m and 635m years ago – say they represent the earliest evidence of food consumed by animals.