Sponges are among Earth's most ancient animals, but exactly when they evolved has long puzzled scientists. Genetic ...

Earth’s first sponges may have been ghostly, soft-bodied pioneers—ancient animals that evolved long before their skeletons ever appeared in stone.

Scientists refine the timeline of sponge origins, showing soft-bodied ancestors likely evolved later than some chemical ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Canadian geologist may have found the earliest fossil record of animal life on Earth, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Around a billion years ago, a ...

After studying rocks more than 541 million years old, MIT scientists have found new evidence that some of Earth’s first ...

Recently found primitive sponge fossils from South Australia suggest that animals have been on Earth for at least 650 million years. This discovery pushes back the fossil record for animals by about ...

CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – What was the first animal on Earth? Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they've finally answered that question. Based on new genetic tests, researchers ...

Field locations in the Northwest Territories of Canada where fossils that may represent the earliest known animal life sponges that lived roughly 890 million years ago were found in mountainous ...

Simple animal life may have existed in Earth’s oceans 890 million years ago, according to new research. Recently discovered fossils belonging to ancient sponges might be the earliest known remnants of ...

The origin of animals may have happened 350 million years earlier than thought. Fossils that seem to be sponges, one of the first animals to evolve, have been found in rocks from 890 million years ago ...