Researchers have found a worm-like creature that lived 555 million years ago which is the ancestor for almost all living creatures. It was found in Nilpena, South Australia.
Earliest known bilaterian: The creature, called Ikaria wariootia, is the earliest known bilaterian, a creature with both a front and back, two symmetrical sides and openings at either end connected by a gut.
Different from biota: Some of the oldest life on Earth, including those sponges and algal mats, is referred to as the Ediacaran Biota. This group is based on the earliest fossils ever discovered, providing evidence of complex, multicellular organisms. But those aren’t directly related to animals living today. And researchers have been trying to find fossilized evidence of the common ancestor of most animals.
