Science says this super scary-looking sea creature might be our oldest ancestor
It may sound like something out of a nightmare, but human beings could actually be related to this odd-looking, newly-discovered sea creature.
Scientists discovered traces of this ancient creature on microfossils in China.
They named it Saccorhytus after its sack like appearance. It supposedly had an elliptical-shaped body and a large mouth. They believe that it roamed the earth over 540 million years ago. And they published all their findings on it in Nature.
Along with their findings, they put together an artist’s rendition of what this microscopic monster may have looked like. And one quick glance at the picture will have you wondering how on earth we could ever be related.
According to their study, this ancient creature belongs to the species known as deuterostomes. Animals in this classification would eventually become all sorts of diverse creatures, including humans and random sea creatures like starfish.
This creepy creature’s discovery could actually shed some light into how humans evolved.
Scientists have long wondered how life on earth could have started from the same basic cells and evolved into an incredible array of fascinating land and water varieties. And, though they have hypotheses, there remain some major gaps in the evolutionary timeline since they lack the fossil evidence to prove their theories.
This discovery, however, suggests that there could be a ton of microscopic creatures that existed even before those ancient fossils. And that fact may help fill in many of the evolutionary timeline gaps. Or, at the very least, help scientists to ask more accurate questions about our evolution.
But no matter what the eventual outcome of Saccorhytus’ discovery may be, it’s safe to say we’ve come a long way from those microscopic (and terrifying-looking) beginnings.
