People who are interested in paleontology will know that the Ediacaran period is one of the most interesting in the evolution of life on Earth. It preceeds the Cambrain period, well-known for its “explosion” of life – the variety of life forms that occurred then laid the foundations of the later evolution of the complex web of life that we know today.
Prior to this, during the Ediacaran, only simple fossils exist and one of the most prominent ones is of a type of organism called Dickinsonia which scientists did not even know if it was an amoeba or a lichen or what.
Now researchers have found traces of cholesterol in a Dickinsonian fossil, confirming that this organism from over 550 million years ago was indeed an animal. This is a fairly substantial breakthrough.
sci-news.com: Ancient Cholesterol Confirms Dickinsonia as One of Earth’s First Animals
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