Cholesterol establishes Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals

Dickinsonia - What is it? - Its a Very Ancient Animal.

Dickinsonia is a well known Ediacaran fossil. But it was usually described as being "enigmatic" - nobody knew what it was. Was it a lichen, an animal, a collection of single celled creatures or something else.

But we now know that, thanks to the discovery of cholesterol molecules in some well preserved Dickinsonia from northern Russia, they were animals. Possibly the first animals. They are, so far, the oldest animals.

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