The oldest evidence of mobility on Earth

[Still Waters]

A few years ago, geologist Abderrazak El Albani and his team at the Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux de Poitiers (CNRS/Université de Poitiers) discovered the oldest existing fossils of multicellular organisms in a deposit in Gabon. Located in the Franceville Basin, the deposit allowed scientists to re-date the appearance of multicellular life on Earth to 2.1 billion years—approximately 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought (600 million). At the time, the researchers showed that this rich biodiversity co-occurred with a peak in dioxygenation of the atmosphere, and developed in a calm and shallow marine environment.

In this same geological deposit, the team has now uncovered the existence of fossilised traces of motility. This shows that certain multicellular organisms in this primitive marine ecosystem were sophisticated enough to move through its mud, rich in organic matter.

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-discovery-oldest-evidence-mobility-earth.html

[bison]

Remarkable! complex organisms that could move about, nearly four times further back in time than formerly known. It almost seems as if life was eager to advance itself by becoming motile. 

Edited February 11, 2019 by bison

[NotWhoYouThink]

i like worms