800 million year old shelled fossil found in Yukon, Canada

characodictyon, 220 microns/Cohen, Macdonald

In “Yukon fossils reveal oldest armoured organism” (CBC News, Jun 13, 2011), we learn,

… 800 million-year-old fossilized evidence that organisms were trying to protect themselves by forming their own shield-like plates.It is the oldest evidence ever of biomineralization, the use of minerals by a living thing to form a hard shell, similar to the way clams or lobsters form their own protection. The tiny fossils date back between 717 and 812 million years.

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Until now the oldest evidence from similar organisms biomineralizing was found in Africa and dates back to about 550 million years ago, Cohen said.

The fossils are microscopic, of course. Do they raise questions one doesn’t ask nowadays?

See also “Spider in amber is 49-million-year-old member of living genus”

“Life forms that never change are telling us something about evolution”

“Darwinians ignoring stasis is ‘denialism,’ physicist charges”

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