Earliest Ediacaran Period fossil footprints of an animal found in China.

[shunyadragon]

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-06/07/c_137235655.htm

Earliest animal footprints found in China

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and American paleontologists reported on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances the discovery of earliest animal fossil footprint ever found.

The fossil footprints for animal appendages was made in the Ediacaran Period, about 635 to 541 million years ago in China, according to the study.

Bilaterian animals such as arthropods and annelids have paired appendages or "legs" and are among the most diverse animals today and in the geological past.

They are often assumed to have appeared and radiated suddenly during the so-called "Cambrian Explosion" about 541 to 510 million years ago, but scientists now tend to consider that their evolutionary ancestry was rooted in the Ediacaran Period.

Until the current discovery, however, no fossil record of animal appendages had been found in that period.

Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Virginia Tech in the United States studied trackways and burrows discovered in the Ediacaran Shibantan Member of the Dengying Formation (551 to 541 million years ago) in the Yangtze Gorges area of southern China.

The trackways are somewhat irregular, consisting of two rows of imprints that are arranged in series or repeated groups, according to the study.

The characteristics of the trackways indicated that they were produced by bilaterian animals with paired appendages that raised the animal body above the water-sediment interface.

Also, the trackways appear to be connected to burrows, suggesting that the animals may have periodically dug into sediments and microbial mats, perhaps to mine oxygen and food.

These trace fossils represent some of the earliest known evidence for animal appendages and extend the earliest trace fossil record of animals with appendages from the early Cambrian to the late Ediacaran Period.

The body fossils of the animals that made these traces, however, have not yet been found.

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[shunyadragon]

I found an article on fossils of the earliest known tetrapods, but I did not care for the reference, and I am looking for something better. Nonetheless, the fossils for aquatic and land dwelling tetrapods are being found older than previously.

[rogue06]

I found an article on fossils of the earliest known tetrapods, but I did not care for the reference, and I am looking for something better. Nonetheless, the fossils for aquatic and land dwelling tetrapods are being found older than previously.

Though highly unlikely any from the Ediacaran.

It probably should be noted that further research is indicating that the tetrapod tracks found in Poland a decade ago and from around 18 million years before Tiktaalik were not made by a tetrapod but are instead thought to have been imprints of a fish feeding in a circular pattern or maybe the remains of "fish nests."

Similarly a supposed trackway found in Pennsylvania are thought to be impressions left by fish poop.

[shunyadragon]

Though highly unlikely any from the Ediacaran.

It probably should be noted that further research is indicating that the tetrapod tracks found in Poland a decade ago and from around 18 million years before Tiktaalik were not made by a tetrapod but are instead thought to have been imprints of a fish feeding in a circular pattern or maybe the remains of "fish nests."

Similarly a supposed trackway found in Pennsylvania are thought to be impressions left by fish poop.

The following article gives good photos. It most definitely looks like something like tracks of a centipede or millipede.

Source: http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/oldest-animal-footprints-06088.html

The oldest known animal ‘footprints’ on Earth, left by bilaterian animals with paired appendages about 545 million years ago, have been discovered in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China.

Trackways and burrows excavated in situ from the Shibantan Member, Dengying Formation, China: (A and B) epirelief (top bedding surface) and hyporelief (bottom bedding surface), respectively; trackways (TW1 and TW2) and undermat burrows (UB1 to UB3) are labeled; (C) latex mold of (B), with trackways and burrows marked and labeled; (D) enlargement of rectangle in (B), showing connection between TW2 and UB3 (marked). Scale bars - 2 cm. Image credit: Chen et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6691.

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I do not know how to show the pictures here, so anyone who knows can add the pictures.

[rogue06]

00000000000000ars1a.jpg

Trackways and burrows excavated in situ from the Shibantan Member,
Dengying Formation, China: (A and B) epirelief (top bedding surface) and
hyporelief (bottom bedding surface), respectively; trackways (TW1 and TW2)
and undermat burrows (UB1 to UB3) are labeled; (C) latex mold of (B),
with trackways and burrows marked and labeled; (D) enlargement of rectangle
in (B), showing connection between TW2 and UB3 (marked). Scale bars – 2 cm.
Image credit: Chen et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6691.

[shunyadragon]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28377[/ATTACH]

Trackways and burrows excavated in situ from the Shibantan Member,
Dengying Formation, China: (A and B) epirelief (top bedding surface) and
hyporelief (bottom bedding surface), respectively; trackways (TW1 and TW2)
and undermat burrows (UB1 to UB3) are labeled; (C) latex mold of (B),
with trackways and burrows marked and labeled; (D) enlargement of rectangle
in (B), showing connection between TW2 and UB3 (marked). Scale bars – 2 cm.
Image credit: Chen et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6691.

Thank you!