World’s oldest animal revealed by ancient FAT from 558million year old Russian fossil

ANCIENT FAT has helped scientists discover the earliest confirmed animal in geological records.

The pre-historic creature lived on Earth around 558million years ago – 20million years before the explosion of "modern animal life".

Scientists found the fossil in a remote area of northwest Russia, near the White Sea.

It was so well-preserved that the fossil tissue still contained molecules of cholesterol.

That's a type of fat that signifies the presence of animal life.

"The fossil fat molecules that we've found prove that animals were large and abundant 558million years ago, millions of years earlier than previously thought," said Professor Jochen Brocks, of the Australian National University, who helped the discovery.

The fossil is known as a Dickinsonia, which is the term used to describe life from the Ediacaran period, or "biota".

That's the period between 635million and 542million years ago, when most organisms would've been tubular and frond-shaped.

This new Dickinsonia fossil dates back 20million years earlier than the "Cambrian explosion", where complex animals started to dominate fossil records.

"Scientists have been fighting for more than 75 years over what Dickinsonia and other bizarre fossils of the Edicaran Biota were: giant single-celled amoeba, lichen, failed experiments of evolution or the earliest animals on Earth," Professor Brocks explained.

"The fossil fat now confirms Dickinsonia as the oldest known animal fossil, solving a decades-old mystery that has been the Holy Grail of palaeontology."

Researchers say the creature would've been oval-shaped, with rib-like segments running along its body.

Experts believe it could've grown up to 1.4 metres in length.

According to PHD scholar Ilya Bobrovskiy, also from ANU, the Dickinsonia fossils hold the key to the "old world" dominated by bacteria, and the world of large animals.

But making the link wasn't easy.

"The problem that we had to overcome was finding Dickinsonia fossils that retained some organic matter," Bobrovskiy explained.

"Most rocks containing these fossils such as those from the Ediacara Hills in Australia have endured a lot of heat, a lot of pressure, and then they were weathered after that.

"These are the rocks that palaeontologists studied for many decades, which explained why they were stuck on the question of Dickinsonia's true identity."

To track down the rare fossil, Bobrovskiy had to travel to a remote region of Russia.

By heading to a relatively untouched area, it was more likely that researchers would find organic matter – key to the discovery.

"I took a helicopter to teach this very remote part of the world – home to bears and mosquitoes – where I could find Dickinsonia fossils with organic matter still intact," said Bobrovskiy.

"These fossils were located in the middle of cliffs of the White Sea that are 60 to 100 metres high.

"I had to hang over the edge of a cliff on ropes and dig out huge blocks of sandstone, throw them down, wash the sandstone and repeat this process until I found the fossils I was after."

Professor Brocks described the opportunity of studying the molecules as a game-changer.

"When Ilya showed me the results, I just couldn't believe it," he said.

"But I also immediately saw the significance."

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