A team of researchers, led by Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, have found Eocyathispongia qiania, known as sponge animal fossils, in Southwest China. Experts say that these could be the earliest animals on Earth ever recorded. Photo: CCTV

A team of researchers, led by Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, have found Eocyathispongia qiania, known as sponge animal fossils, in Southwest China. Experts say that these could be the earliest animals on Earth ever recorded.

The group of fossils were found in sediments deposited in mountains, where paleontological fossil communities are located, in Weng'an, Southwest China's Guizhou.

It took the scientists at least eight years (2007-15) to spot the fossil specimen hidden in tons of sand they brought from the mountains in Guizhou, said China Central Television (CCTV) on Monday.

"Those fossils are scattered in the vast mountains. With an average of 1.2 millimeter in diameter for each grain of sand, we have to use microscopes to literally check sand by sand," Yin Zongjun, researcher at the institute in Nanjing, told CCTV.

Science shows that the earliest stage of animals appearing on Earth were sponge animals, and scientists generally accept that they lived on earth for at least 560 million years, said Yin.

Yet this discovery sheds light on the fact that around 609 million years ago, the earliest animals on Earth had appeared in China's Guizhou, which is 60 million years ahead of the general consensus, noted Yin.

CCTV