Scans of Australian Fossil Reveal Oldest Bilaterian





Longtime Westbury, NY, resident Valerie Varnuska loves learning about the natural world. To this end, Valerie Varnuska is fascinated by sciences such as geology and paleontology.

It’s well-established that numerous animals, from humans to insects, feature a bilaterian body plan. This means that they have a back, stomach, head, and tail that are organized as mirror images of one another. Due to this orientation, organisms are capable of moving in a purposeful way, thus establishing the development of bilateral symmetry as an important stepping stone in animals’ evolutionary history.

The oldest animals who displayed this type of bilateral symmetry are called bilaterians. Based on studies of modern animals, evolutionary biologists believe these bilaterians have basic sensory organs and are relatively simple creatures. However, fossilized remains of the animal were difficult to find. Rather, paleontologists have exclusively studied fossilized burrows created in Ediacaran-period deposits that were believed to have been created by bilaterians.

Recently, Dr. Scott Evans, a researcher from the University of California, Riverside, found remnants of a bilaterian that confirmed with these biologists predicted. The animal was found using a 3D laser scanner that revealed the shape of a cylindrical body with a head and a tail that matched the burrows made by bilaterians in Australia. The creature was named Ikaria wariootia and measured about one to 2.5 millimeters wide.

By combining evidence from both the creature scans and the burrows, scientists realized that the bilaterian likely moved with peristaltic locomotion. This form of movement involved contracting muscles along the body, similar to a worm. Meanwhile, curvature of the burrows indicated that the animal had distinct rear and front ends, and sediment displacement in the burrows suggested that it fed on organic matter and likely had a mouth, gut, and anus.

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