Researchers may have uncovered the reason why some of Earth’s earliest animals were commonly preserved as fossils – even though they were essentially fragile ‘bags of goo’ – while later soft-bodied creatures have largely disappeared from the fossil record.
Wait, so some of those animals might have existed for way longer than the fossil record makes it seem, just because bacteria got better at breaking them down? That’s actually pretty crazy 🤭 Makes you wonder how much of Earth’s history we’re missing simply because things decomposed before they had a chance to fossilize. Kinda fascinating and frustrating at the same time 😭😂😭🫠