‘Sea-organism without the anus is the oldest known ancestor of man’ – NU.nl

Picture: University of Cambridge

Scientists have in China a fossil was discovered of a microscopic zeediertje that may be the oldest ancestor of man.

It is a minuscule zakvormig zeediertje with a large mouth.

The organism with the name Saccorhytus lived 540 million years ago and had remarkably enough, no anus.

That report, researchers from the University of Cambridge in the scientific journal Nature.

Grains

The scientists discovered the fossil in a rotsafzetting in the central Chinese province of Shanxi. The fossilized remains of the animal are only a millimeter in size. “With the naked eye saw the fossils look like small black grains, but under the microscope we saw an amazing amount of detail,” explains lead researcher Simon Conway Morris on news site New Scientist.

The sea-organism probably lived between grains of sand and raised by other sea creatures or particles on to swallow up, to swallow, and again to spit. The fossil contained no traces of an anus.

Fresh

“Probably came in the waste again through the mouth to the outside, what from our perspective is not very fresh sounds”, says Conway Morris. “Nevertheless, this represented animal the beginning of a large group of species, which we, the people also belong.”

The organism Saccorythus was one of the first nieuwmondigen, a superstam of organisms that are considered to be the ancestor of all vertebrates, including fish, reptiles, and people. Incidentally, had the most nieuwmondigen an anus.

By: NU.nl/Dennis Rijnvis