This ancestor of the jellyfish is the oldest known predator on the planet

British researchers have just identified a 560 million year old fossil as an ancestor of jellyfish.

Their study appeared Monday in the journal

, reports

.

It would therefore be the very first known predator.

The specimen studied would have been trapped in stone after a flow of sediment and ash around an ancient marine volcano.

It was then preserved, along with other fossils, for all these years in a siltstone slab.

A paper in @NatureEcoEvo presents a new fossil that establishes the body plan of early cnidarians tens of millions of years earlier than previously anticipated.

The cnidarian fossil is named for David Attenborough.

https://t.co/mBy5vtE32w pic.twitter.com/5PAQRPkVUO

— Nature Portfolio (@NaturePortfolio) July 25, 2022

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The very first predator in history

This strange creature which measures about 20 cm high has been baptized

, in honor of the scientist and naturalist David Attenborough, who discovered it in the forest of Charnwood (England) in 2007. It would be a precursor of the cnidarians, a group of aquatic animals to which belong jellyfish and corals.

But the real big discovery is this: its identification pushes back by about 20 million years the appearance (known by humans) of predators in the animal kingdom.

“It is generally accepted that groups of modern animals like jellyfish appeared 540 million years ago, explains a paleontologist.

But this predator predates that by 20 million years!

»

Incidentally,

is also the very first known organism with a skeleton.

According to the study, it had very densely arranged tentacles allowing it to capture passing food, as corals and anemones do today.

“It is unlike anything else we have found in the fossil record at the time,” the study concludes.

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