New Study Investigates 500-Million-Year-Old Fossils, Complex Life On Earth Began Earlier Than Once Thought
A new study has just been published investigating fossils that are over 500-million-years-old from the western region of Brazil and date back to the Ediacaran Period. The Ediacaran Period ranges from 635 to 542 million years ago, and the fossils studied have been found to be between 555-542 million years of age, edging very close to the Cambrian explosion of the next era.
These Brazilian fossils, which are half a billion years of age, are known as trace fossils. A trace fossil is comprised of the burrows and trace marks, which have been left behind by once living and thriving organisms. The 500-million-year-old fossils were a big surprise to paleontologists, who may now need to rethink previous theories and studies about the arrival of complex life on Earth.
