A closer look at “Animals May Have Evolved Hundreds of Millions of Years Earlier Than Fossils Show, Oxford S”, exactly as the source publishes it. The earliest animals may have evolved hundreds of millions of years before their first unmistakable fossils appear, according to a new study led by the University of Oxford and published in Science Advances. The research suggests animal origins may lie deep in the Neoproterozoic Era, predating some of Earth’s most extreme ice ages. This challenges the long-held assumption that the fossil record provides a reliable timeline for early animal evolution.
By analyzing molecular clock data and the fossil record, the team found that animals could have emerged as early as 800 million years ago, while the first definitive animal fossils date to around 574 million years ago. This gap implies that early animals were likely soft-bodied and rarely fossilized, or that environmental conditions prevented preservation. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.