Generation game: earliest evidence of reproduction in complex species found
by Tim Radford from on (#G9SX)
A combination of fossils and sophisticated statistical techniques has allowed scientists to reconstruct how Fractofusus reproduced 565 million years ago
They looked like plants but were almost certainly animals; they drifted back and forth in in the deep ocean currents 565 million years ago; and by 540 million years ago, they were gone.
And yet, in one of palaeontology's triumphs, researchers at Cambridge now know how these mysterious organisms spread themselves around the pre-Cambrian world. And the answer is one that every gardener would recognise: they sent out runners, and established new growths. Just like strawberries.
