Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

‘Mindblowing’ haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Admin

Thousands of fossils date back to huge burst in diversity of life on Earth known as Cambrian explosion

A “mindblowing” haul of fossils that captures the riot of evolution that kickstarted the diversity of life on Earth more than half a billion years ago has been discovered by researchers in China.

Paleontologists found thousands of fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui river in Hubei province in southern China, where primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, algae, anemones, worms and arthropods with thin whip-like feelers were entombed in an ancient underwater mudslide.

Ancient rock wiggles could be earliest trace of moving organism

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Admin

Scientists say 2.1bn-year-old fossils may show evidence of self-propelled motion

A collection of short wiggly structures discovered in ancient rocks could be the earliest fossilised traces of organisms able to move themselves, scientists say.

If scientists are correct, the 2.1bn-year-old structures point to an earlier origin than generally thought for eukaryotes – cells with a membrane-bound nucleus and which make up plants, animals and fungi – previouslybelieved to have first emerged about 1.8bn years ago. It also pushes back the earliest evidence of self-propelled movement of eukaryotes by 1.5bn years – scooping the title from far younger multicellular lifeforms – and would be the first clear signs of motility for any type of organism.