Haootia quadriformi s is the name with which paleontologists baptized a new species whose fossil remains have been found in Newfoundland (Canada).
It is a strange creature belonging to the Ediacarense fauna, a geological period that lasted between 635 and 541 million years ago.
Apart from its quadruple symmetry, which relates this primitive being to the current group of cnidarians – jellyfish, anemones and corals – what has attracted the most attention are the traces of muscle tissue. In fact, this trait makes H. quadriformis the oldest muscular animal discovered to date.
The finding, made by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Newfoundland, gives arguments to those who argue that the explosion of animal diversity took place before the Cambrian, was that it began 541 million years ago.
The early development of muscles was crucial for living beings to have precise control of their movements and begin to conquer all the ecosystems of the planet.
Photo: Martin Brasier
