A peculiar spiny fossil, once thought to represent one of the earliest mollusks, has now been conclusively reclassified by ...

The fossil, Shishania aculeata, was originally thought to be an early mollusc, a group that includes snails and clams.

Scientists predict that sponges—among the most basic animals—arose a few hundred million years before the occurrence of the oldest confirmed fossil specimens, which date to about 500 million years ago ...

The Lophiostroma leizunia has pushed back the fossil record of this group of sponges and the reefs they produced 20 million years earlier than they thought, according to a study published in PNAS.

Chinese and South Korean researchers jointly discovered the oldest known phosphatic stromatoporoid sponge fossil dating back 480 million years called Lophiostroma leizunia in Yichang, Central ...