By Elizabeth Howell, Live Science Contributor | June 09, 2014 06:47pm ET
A puzzling fossil find from the Ediacaran period, an era that occurred more than 500 million years ago, has scientists curious about how "bilateral" creatures such as humans evolved.
The Plexus ricei organism resembled a tapeworm or flatworm. Mysteriously, it appears to have had "bilateral", or left-right, symmetry before anything else living 540 million to 575 million years ago.
"Plexus was unlike any other fossil that we know from the Precambrian," said study researcher
Mary Droser, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Riverside, in a statement. The Precambrian was the period before abundant animal life appeared on our planet, and represents latter part is called the Ediacaran period.
Mary Droser, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Riverside, in a statement. The Precambrian was the period before abundant animal life appeared on our planet, and represents latter part is called the Ediacaran period.
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