Animal Life 'Significantly' Older - Ancient Sponges Leave Their Mark

Icy planet



The discovery is fascinating because it pre-dates the end of the Marinoan glaciation, a deep freeze in Earth history that some argue shrouded the entire planet in ice.

Scientists often refer to the term "snowball Earth" to describe conditions at this time.

So to find animal life apparently thriving during this glaciation seems remarkable, commented Jochen Brochs, from the Australian National University, Canberra.

"If there really was a snowball Earth, how did those sponges survive? The full snowball Earth hypothesis would predict that the oceans were frozen over by 2km, even at the equator," he told BBC News.

"Only at hot springs could any organism survive but it is questionable that you would have sponges in a hot spring. I haven't made my mind up about snowball Earth but perhaps these sponges are telling us something about this glaciation."

Dr Love's view is that the presence of these animals puts limits on the scale of the ice coverage.

"I believe there were areas of what we might call refugia - areas of open ocean where biology could go on. And in this case, it could be evidence that we had some sort of evolutionary stimulation of new grades of organisms as well."



Jonathan.Amos
-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk