Australia: Sheep farmer finds oldest vertebrate fossil BBC - October 24, 2003
Australia: Sheep farmer finds oldest vertebrate fossil BBC - October 24, 2003
A sheep farmer in Australia has discovered a fossil of the world's oldest vertebrate - the common ancestor of all animals with a backbone. Sheep station owner Ross Fargher found the fossil among a number of strange shapes embedded in sandstone slabs on his farm. But after taking it home, he left it on his veranda for four years before scientists identified its importance. At 560 million years old, the fossil is around 30 million years older than the next oldest vertebrate remains found so far, in China.
The fossil was about six centimetres long, with a head shield and a top dorsal crest. There was also a possibility it had once had a fin. He said that the creature "gave rise to everything that has some kind of stiffening rod or backbone". The group is collectively known as chordates - vertebrates are only one type of chordates, defined by the fact that their backbone is mineralized.
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