By Canadian Press

Evolving faster: scientists may have pushed back when complex life appeared

Feb 13, 2019 | 2:56 PM

EDMONTON — A closer look at some unimaginably ancient fossils suggests complex life may have evolved much earlier than thought. 

In a paper published today, a team of researchers say they’ve found evidence that tiny, slug-like beings were squirming around in the mud of shallow seas about 2.1 billion years ago.

Their fossilized tracks suggest they were capable of movement, a sign that life had already advanced past one-celled creatures. 

That would push back the date at which complex life appeared by about 1.5 billion years.

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University of Alberta co-author Kurt Konhauser says that could mean that evolution worked much more quickly on the primitive Earth than previously thought.

Little else is known about the beasties, the longest of which would have been shorter than a paper clip. 

The Canadian Press