Fossils shed light on early animal movement

It’s got the moves: An artist’s reconstruction of the movement of Yilingia spiciformis worm. — AFP

Tokyo: More than half a billion years ago, a worm-like creature wriggled its last, creating a groove preserved as a fossil that offers new insights into some of the earliest animal movement.

The origins of movement in animal species remains fairly murky, though there is evidence of “directional movement” – as opposed to the meandering drift of a jellyfish for example – as early as 560 million years ago.