Oldest vertebrate news article

[Chris Glen <s370548@student.uq.edu.au>]

Caught the tail end of this story on the news this morning...thought it 
might be of interest...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/story_52585.asp



Fossil of oldest vertebrate found

A fossil, believed to be the oldest vertebrate ever found, has been 
uncovered in South Australia.

The five-centimetre fossil, which looks like an elongated tadpole and is 
believed to be at least 560 million years old, was unearthed in sandstone 
by station owner Ross Fargher at a secret location in SA's Flinders Rangers.

The SA Museum said the fossil was part of a marine animal known as the 
Ediacara Chordate.

A fin on its back, a set of inclined muscle bars and a head were clearly 
visible, the museum said.

The fossil's age eclipsed that of one previously considered the oldest at 
530 million years that was discovered in China several years ago, museum 
palaeontologist Jim Gehling said.


<http://direct.ninemsn.com.au/scripts/accipiter/adclick/cat=news/site=ninemsn.news/area=National/loc=top/aamsz=medium>69b5b9.jpg"The 
fantastic thing about this specimen is that it's at least 30 million years 
older than anything else that could be even vaguely related to 
vertebrates," Dr Gehling said.

"(The Flinders Ranges fossil is) at least 560 million years old, it could 
be even about five million years older (565 million years old) - it's very 
hard to tell."

Dr Gehling said vertebrates were recognised as being the oldest and largest 
animals to exist on earth.

"They (vertebrate fossils) include some very bizarre things but most of 
them are almost unrecognisable in terms of the kinds of animals we see 
today," he said.

"A few of them seem to relate to whales and crustaceans and maybe even 
starfish and jelly fish."

He said vertebrate fossils were particularly interesting because humans 
were vertebrates.

"The holy grail of palaeontology is always to work out where we came from," 
he said.

The fossil was expected to be brought back to Adelaide for further analysis 
by museum staff.

"While we say it has a backbone, there's no direct evidence of a backbone," 
Dr Gehling said.

"It's the shape of the thing and it's the fact that it has these inclined 
sets of muscles and a head end ... which makes it look like a little fishy 
tadpole type thing, which is evidence that it's something different to all 
the other fossils
e



------------------------------------------------
Chris Glen
PhD candidate,
Anatomy Dept.,
University of Queensland
Q 4072, AUSTRALIA
Room: 418
Phone: (07) 3365 2720
Email: s370548@student.uq.edu.au
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One Late Mesozoic mammal to an other after a hard day of dodging
dinosaur feet and droppings, only to find their burrow trampled:
"Hey, a falling star, make a wish."
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