Dozens of animals, some on land but many in the ocean, can produce light within their bodies through chemical reactions. Scientists are still trying to understand when and why this trait developed.
The discovery of a fossil over 500 million years old reveals new information. Its brain and nervous system are remarkably preserved, filling in some gaps in what we know about arthropod evolution.
Reconstruction of the prehistoric Yorkicystis haefneri adapted from fossil evidence, created by Hugo Salais (Metazoa Studio).
Samuel Zamora
Most modern animals have their roots half a billion years ago in the Cambrian Explosion, but one group was curiously missing from the fossil record - until now.
A recent fossil discovery in the Mackenzie Mountains, NWT may change how we consider animal evolution.
(Shutterstock)
Looking a bit like enlarged woodlice, ancient trilobites crawled along the seabed and had an exoskeleton made of calcite — nature’s version of a suit of armour.
The radiodont Anomalocaris, with its large stalked eyes, is considered a top predator that swam in the oceans more than 500 million years ago.
Katrina Kenny
Our study on weird ancient marine animals called radiodonts supports the idea that vision played a crucial role during the Cambrian Explosion, a rapid burst of evolution about 500 million years ago.
Exceptionally well preserved 500m year old fossils show Cambrian seas were more diverse than scientists had thought.
A modern arthropod (the centipede Cormocephalus) crawls over its Cambrian ‘flatmate’ (the trilobite Estaingia).
Michael Lee / South Australian Museum and Flinders University
Modern animals took over our planet much more quickly than previously thought. This has both welcome and disturbing implications for the future of life on our rapidly changing planet
Strange frond-like sea creatures are among the planet’s earliest animals, but new research dates them and the entire animal kingdom to much earlier than first thought.
With no identifiable body parts, it’s hard to know how these fossilized creatures lived. A new approach models how the ocean’s water would interact with their unique shapes – hinting at their lifestyle.
The cycles of nutrients into the oceans following the building of mountains may have been a prime driver of evolutionary change.
John Long, Flinders University