Time is running out to determine if China holds the world’s oldest animal fossils


The rocks of the Doushantuo Formation, in China's Guizhou Province, are sprinkled with tiny, ancient fossils. They are no more than a millimeter in length. The 600-million-year-old organisms are preserved with such detail that the fossils, when freed from the rock in a chemical bath and scanned with X-rays, reveal not only individual cells but possible cell nuclei. Some fossils are jagged and round, like wizened Koosh balls. Other orbs, among the most intriguing specimens, are split by Y-shaped seams.

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