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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Scientists have found the "earliest known" ancestor of humans [bbc.com], and it had no need of an anus:

Researchers have discovered the earliest known ancestor of humans - along with a vast range of other species. They say that fossilised traces of the 540-million-year-old creature are "exquisitely well preserved". The microscopic sea animal is the earliest known step on the evolutionary path that led to fish and - eventually - to humans. Details of the discovery from central China appear in Nature [nature.com] [DOI: 10.1038/nature21072] [DX [doi.org]] journal.

The research team says that Saccorhytus is the most primitive example of a category of animals called "deuterostomes" which are common ancestors of a broad range of species, including vertebrates (backboned animals). Saccorhytus was about a millimetre in size, and is thought to have lived between grains of sand on the sea bed.

Also at St John's College Cambridge [cam.ac.uk].

Original Submission