In “Oldest animal ever found in Namibia?” (IOL SciTech , February 6, 2012), Shaun Smillie reports,
An academic paper, released this month in the South African Journal of Science, has announced Otavia as the earliest known animal. Microscopic Otavia fossils have been found across Namibia.
The oldest Otavia were around 760 million years old, a 150 million years earlier than when other animals emerged in the fossil record.
Otavia would have likely shared its world with algae and bacteria, both of which it preyed on.
And whatever else we find, if they didn’t get there first.