Discovery of new fossils in Northwest Canada changes view of early animal evolution
Phys.org • • science
Key Points:
- Researchers have discovered a significant fossil site in Canada's Northwest Territories, revealing Ediacaran biota that push back the origins of animal movement and sexual reproduction by 5–10 million years.
- The site contains over 100 fossils, including six groups never before seen in North America, such as Dickinsonia, Funisia, Kimberella, and Eoandromeda, providing new insights into early multicellular animal life.
- These fossils belong to the White Sea assemblage and are estimated to be about 567 million years old, overlapping with the older Avalon assemblage, indicating a more complex timeline for early animal evolution.
- The organisms lived in deeper-water environments, supporting the hypothesis that early animals originated in stable offshore marine settings before moving to shallower waters.
- The findings, published in Science Advances, were led by the American Museum of Natural History and Dartmouth researchers, with fossils to be housed at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center.