| Kampecaris obanensis was about 2.5 centimetres long with a segmented body. It resembled modern millipedes, but was a member of an extinct group and is not ancestral to millipedes alive today. (British Geological Survey) |
The oldest land animal ever foundAn inch-long critter similar to a millipede looks to be the oldest animal known to have lived on land. Fossil imprints of Kampecaris obanensis from the island of Kerrera in Scotland have been radiometrically dated to around 425 million years ago, in the Silurian period. The arthropod probably fed on decomposing plants on a lakeside. Even earlier land animals, from the Cambrian era, are known to have existed, but only indirectly, from their tracks. CBC | 3 min readSource: Historical Biology paper |
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