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A star is born: half billion-year-old fossil rewrites the origin story of starfish

cam.ac.uk · 2h · first reportShare

A star is born: half billion-year-old fossil rewrites the origin story of starfish Sarah Collins Wed, 09/16/2026 - 16:00 The fossilised animals, discovered in southwestern China and named Yujingia glutenotunica , are thought to be close to the last common ancestor of ambulacrarians, the modern group that includes starfish, sea stars, sea urchins and acorn worms. The international research team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, say the fossils could also help us understand why two closely-related lineages – starfish and their relatives, and chordates, the phylum that includes humans – evolved wildly different body plans over millions of years. The results are reported in the journal Current Biology . The fossilised animals date from a period of rapid evolutionary development known as the Cambrian explosion, when most major animal groups first appear in the fossil record. Most animal fossils from the Cambrian are of hard-shelled creatures, but, in a handful of loca