Ohio State University Professor Loren Babcock has found what he is "reasonably certain" are tracks made by either a centipede-like arthropod or a legged worm. (Arthropods are invertebrates with jointed limbs and segmented bodies. Insects are arthropods.) From the tracks, he determined it was about a centimeter wide with multiple, spindly legs.
What's cool here is that the tracks are 570 million years old - which makes them, if they are indeed animal tracks, a good 30 million years older than the oldest previously known tracks and would push the existence of walking creatures back to the Ediacaran period, which preceded the Cambrian period when most major groups of "modern" animals first appeared.
Scientists had once thought only microbes and simple multicellular animals had existed prior to the Cambrian, but that notion is changing,Babcock said, and if his find is confirmed, it would prove the existence of more complex animals before the Cambrian. He expects his find to raise "a lot of skepticism," adding that "there should be." But wouldn't it be fascinating if it pans out.
That wonderful life just keeps on getting more wonderful.
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