Fossil site in China reveals bevy of complex creatures lived prior to the Cambrian explosion, including a 'Dune'-like sandworm

An artist's reconstruction of Jiangchuan biota (~554-539 million years ago). (Image credit: Xiaodong Wang) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter A newly discovered trove of fossils in southwestern China is shifting the timeline of when complex animals evolved. The diversity and complexity of animal life is thought to have increased rapidly beginning around 539 million years ago, in an evolutionary burst known as the Cambrian explosion . But the new fossil site suggests that some of that complexity was already present several million years before the Cambrian explosion, during the end of the Ediacaran period (roughly 635 million to 539 million years ago). Among the fossil finds were bilateral worm-like animals that may have anchored themselves to the seafloor, early comb jellies, and relatives of starfish and sea cucumbers that likely used tentacles on their heads to catch food. Other fossils bore little resemblance to modern animals or to known Ediacaran or Cambrian species. "One specimen looks a lot like the sand worm from Dune," study co-author Frankie Dunn , a researcher who studies Ediacaran organisms at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, said in a statement . Some simple multicellular creatures, such as sponges, first appeared during the Ediacaran period. But most modern animal phyla showed up during the subsequent 13 million- to 25 million-year-long Cambrian explosion, including chordates, the phylum that includes humans and other vertebrates. The Haootia-like fossil (an early cnidarian – the phylum that includes jellyfish, sea anemones and corals) from the Jiangchuan Biota (~554-539 million years old). (Image credit: Gaorong Li & Xiaodong Wang.) The new fossil discovery suggests that some of that complexity had already arisen by the late Ediacaran. Uncovered as part of the Jiangchuan Biota collection of fossils in southwestern China, the collection contains more than 700 specimens of fossilized animals and algae dating to between 554 million and 539 million years ago. Researchers reported the findings Thursday (April 2) in the journal Science . "When we first saw these specimens, it was clear that this was something totally unique and unexpected," study co-author Luke Parry , a paleobiologist at the University of Oxford, said in the statement. Sign up for the Live Scien