Turner's discovery may help fill that gap and provide a glimpse into the earliest marine animal life on Earth. These sponges appeared 90 million years before events thought necessary to support the appearance and diversification of animal life. "The big discussion has been, was there animal life in a significant way in the pre-Cambrian before the Cambrian explosion or not." When it comes to early animal life, researchers really have no idea what they will find. "We need to do some real soul-searching about what early animal preservation might have been like."

Source: CNN July 28, 2021 15:11 UTC