Oldest U.S. animal fossilsIn 1975, the discovery of the oldest animal fossils in the U.S., imprints of large narrow marine worms in rock radiometrically dated as 620 million years old, was reported in the New York Times. They were claimed to be early examples of Pre-Cambrian polychaete annelids—tube building, toothless, soft-bodied marine worms up to a foot long. The trace fossils formed as imprints the worm left in mud eventually became rock. They were found on the Little River, north of Durham, North Carolina in 1974 by Virginia Polytechnic Institute geology professor Dr. Lynn Glover with graduate student James E. Wright. A large slab containing the fossils was excavated in late May 1975, displayed at the U.S. Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Virginia and later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.«Regional newspapers reported the discovery a few days earlier, for example, The News and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) on 29 May 1975. A few paleontologists have proposed the markings are merely pebble scratches created during tectonic folding of rock layers. Even older fossils of other organisms have since been reported elsewhere in the U.S. and the world. |
