Researchers Find Oldest Evidence of Multicellular Animal Life

U.S., German and Indian researchers have discovered fossil evidence of wormlike animals in rocks that are more than one billion years old--by far the oldest evidence of multicellular animals. The oldest evidence previously found was 580 million years old, and most researchers believe that multicellular animals became widespread in the early Cambrian period, 540 million years ago.

The team reports in tomorrow’s issue of Science that they found fossilized burrows left by the creatures that are very similar to burrows left by much more recent triploblastic animals (animals that developed from an embryo and that contain three outer membranes, as do worms).

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II