Oldest Human Ancestor Was Over 500 Million Years Old, Found From The Bottom of the Sea

Scientists found the root of the vertebrate family tree by identifying the earliest ancestor of modern species including the humans. This prehistoric "Bag like Sea" creature lived for about 540 million years ago.

This microscopic fossil was found in China. The study was carried out by the international scientists from China, Germany, and the UK. Scientists named it as “Saccorhytus”, the most primitive example of “deuterostome”. It was known as the common ancestor of a vast range of species including vertebrates. Scientists published their latest discoveries in the journal of Nature.

Saccorhytus was about one millimeter in size and the grains of sand at the seabed was its main habitat. According to the report by BBC News, researchers didn’t find any anus in this primitive species that clearly denotes, it has only one orifice which they used for food consumption and to eject metabolic bi-products.

Professor Morris from the University of Cambridge said in a statement,”To the naked eye, the fossils we studied look like tiny black grains, but under the microscope, the level of detail was jaw dropping”. He also added that early deuterostome may represent the prehistoric beginnings of a very distinct variety of species, including Homo Sapiens sp.

Discovered Deuterostomes were almost 510 to 520 million years old, later it was diversified into several species. Not only vertebrates, even Starfishes and sea urchins were also originated from this specimen. At the first phase of the experiment, researchers faced some difficulties because the successors are uncommon by look, size, and nature.

Morris explained that the body of this species was symmetrical, that means if their body was cut in half then the right half will just be the mirrored version of the left half or vice versa. Later this symmetrical characteristic was inherited by many invertebrates and vertebrates, including humans.

They also have some extraordinary features in their body which can be visible in their modern descendants. The study suggests that their body was covered with a thin and flexible skin and muscles. They didn’t have any legs, they used to move around by wriggling their muscles. One of the most interesting things about their body was its large mouth which they used for swallowing food and eject their body wastes.