Ancient Canadian fossils push back animal evolution by up to ten million years

A newly uncovered fossil locality in Canada has yielded 567-million-year-old specimens that suggest animal movement, sexual reproduction and complex body plans emerged earlier than previously thought.

An exceptional fossil deposit in Canada’s Mackenzie Mountains has revealed over a hundred specimens of the Ediacaran biota, with ages around 567 million years, making them the oldest known examples of mobile and sexually reproducing animals. The discovery pushes back the emergence of complex animal traits by five to ten million years and represents the first White Sea assemblage fossils documented on the North American continent.

Among the finds are Dickinsonia, Funisia, Kimberella and a possible comb-jelly, each illustrating early body plans and reproductive strategies. The fossils were recovered with guidance from the Sahtú Dene and Métis communities and will be housed at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Lead author Scott Evans and co-author Justin Strauss suggest that the deep-ocean environment of the site may have provided stable conditions that fostered early animal diversification. The research, published in Science Advances, was supported by NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation.