When picturing the earliest animals on Earth, most people imagine ancient fish or tiny marine creatures drifting through prehistoric seas. But new research has revealed a far more humble origin story ...

A team of MIT geochemists has unearthed new evidence in very old rocks suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. The newly identified chemical ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Ancient animal history is extremely difficult to reconstruct, for a number of reasons. Some of the earliest creatures in existence ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. New research finds chemical fossils from sponges in rocks over 541 million years old, suggesting animals emerged earlier than once ...

Researchers have identified ten likely new species of branching marine worms found within sea sponges. These unusual worms exhibit a unique tree-like body structure, which has evolved over time.

Geobiologists reported a 550 million-year-old sea sponge that had been missing from the fossil record. The discovery sheds new light on a conundrum that has stumped zoologists and paleontologists for ...

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our ...

New research reveals even an animal with no brain at all can anticipate what’s coming next. Sea sponges are one of our most distant animal relatives, lacking all the familiar sensory apparatus. They ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The first animals to inhabit the Earth may have been sea sponges, a new ...

Scientists have long thought the humble sea sponge, an animal that feeds by filtering water through itself, forms the oldest group of animals on earth. But a new study claims that the comb jelly ...

The discovery of the sea sponge order Vilesida and its unique sterols supports the hypothesis that animals may have originated 100 million years earlier than previously expected. Ancient chemicals ...

A team of MIT geochemists has unearthed new evidence in very old rocks suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. In a study appearing today in ...