Sponge-like Cambrian fossil discovery

From the University of Leicester in England:

Strange sponge-like fossil creature from half a billion years ago

June 19, 2018

Summary: A discovery of a new species of sponge-like fossil from the Cambrian Period sheds light on early animal evolution.

Scientists have discovered the fossil of an unusual large-bodied sponge-like sea-creature from half a billion years ago.

The creature belongs to an obscure and mysterious group of animals known as the chancelloriids, and scientists are unclear about where they fit in the tree of life.

They represent a lineage of spiny tube-shaped animals that arose during the Cambrian evolutionary “explosion” but went extinct soon afterwards. In some ways they resemble sponges, a group of simple filter-feeding animals, but many scientists have dismissed the similarities as superficial.

The new discovery by a team of scientists from the University of Leicester, the University of Oxford and Yunnan University…