760 Million-Year-Old Sponges Were World's First Animals

A new discovery puts the date of the first animals back 100 million years.

Geologists have uncovered what they believe to be the remains of the oldest animals on the planet – ancient sea sponges found in Namibia. A team of 10 researchers combed through Namibia's Etosha National Park and found miniscule fossils embedded in rocks which date back to between 550 million and 760 million years ago. Previous research had put the dawn of the world's first animals at between 600 million and 650 million years ago, meaning animal life could have existed on Earth some 100 million years earlier than imagined. The sponges, which are about the size of a speck of dust, appear to have received nutrients from water that passed through tiny holes in their bodies. All in all, it's a fitting discovery just five days before Charles Darwin's 203rd birthday.