A bizarre, tentacled creature that lived in Earth's oceans 560 million years ago and resembled modern sponges was probably the first predator of the animal kingdom.. This conclusion was reached by scientists who re-analyzed fossils discovered more than 10 years ago, Live science reports..

The remains of the creature were found in an outcrop of volcanic and sedimentary rock called the Bradgate Formation in Leicestershire, England.. The rocks were formed approximately 557 - 562 million years ago, during the Ediacaran period.. That is, the fossil appeared before the Cambrian explosion, an episode when life on Earth rapidly diversified..

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Precambrian fossils rarely resemble forms that look like modern animals, so the discovery of an Ediacaran animal that looks like a jellyfish is something incredible, scientists say..

Philip Donoghue, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol in England, said that most of the Ediacaran animals known to date do not share structural features with currently existing creatures.. Therefore, they are considered to belong to extinct groups of animals.. The scientist noted that this fossil may be the oldest known creature belonging to the currently existing species..

The creature was named Auroralumina attenboroughii. Its generic name means " The specific name honors broadcaster and biologist Sir David Attenborough for "

A group of researchers found fossil A. attenboroughii during a 2007 expedition to Charnwood Forest, but the first important finds were made here as early as the 1950s. Then two children, first Tina Negus and then Roger Mason, found a fern-shaped fossil in a quarry.. This organism, named Charnia masoni, was the first fossil that could be dated with certainty to the Ediacaran period..

During the 2007 expedition, scientists examined a rock that rose above the forest floor at an angle of 45 degrees.. When scientists removed a layer of soil from the rock's surface, they found that it contained thousands of fossils that belonged to 20 to 30 different species.. Except A. attenboroughii, they resembled already known branching creatures that existed in the Ediacaran period.

The researchers created rock casts, and then built 3D models of ancient creatures based on them.. As a result, they found that one creature resembled a candelabra with two goblet-like structures extending from each other.. And along the edges of each " The ribs that ran along the sides of the fossil indicated that these goblets were supported by a rigid skeleton..

attenboroughii shares many key characteristics with Cambrian Medusozoa fossils, the group that includes modern jellyfish. Despite the fact that the description of the creature does not look like a jellyfish, this does not mean that they do not have similarities at all.. At a certain stage in their lives, jellyfish attach themselves to the seafloor to reproduce asexually.. And at this time they remind A. attenboroughii.

If A. attenboroughii is indeed a member of the Medusozoa, it must belong to the larger group of organisms known as cnidarians, which also includes corals, sea feathers, and sea anemones. Previously it was believed that this group could not have arisen before the Cambrian period, but new evidence indicates that it appeared 20 million years earlier than expected..