This ancestor of jellyfish is the oldest known predator on Earth!

Appointed Auroralumina attenboroughii in tribute to the scientist and naturalist David Attenborough, a 560 million year old fossil has just been identified by British researchers. It would correspond to the very first known predator!

Of a somewhat curious appearance, the creature is about 20 cm high. Discovered in 2007 in Charnwood Forest, it took fifteen years to formally identify this strange specimen. Appointed Auroralumina attenboroughii in tribute to David Attenborough who himself found many fossils in Charnwood Forest, his characteristics were described in a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Dated‘Ediacaran, more precisely from 560 million years ago, it was preserved in a slab of siltstone, together with other fossils. Researchers estimate that all became stuck in stone following a flow of sediment and ash down the side of an ancient underwater volcano. According to them, Auroralumina attenboroughii would be a precursor of cnidariansa group of aquatic animals to which the jellyfish and corals. More precisely, it is attached to the jellyfish, a subgroup in which the jellyfish are obviously found.

It pushes back evidence of predation in the animal kingdom by around 20 million years

Researchers are excited about this discovery: it’s the first ever predator never known! “It is generally accepted that modern animal groups like jellyfish appeared 540 million years ago during the Cambrian Explosion. But this predator predates that by 20 million years.”said Phil Wilby, paleontologist to British Geological Survey.

It is also the very first example of an organism with a skeleton ! “It’s unlike anything else we found in the fossil record at the time, wondered Dr. Frankie Dunn, first author of the study and paleontologist at the University of Oxford. This one clearly has a skeleton, with densely packed tentacles that would have tossed about in the water capturing passing food, much like corals and sea anemones do today.”.