Sun Oct 5, 6:09 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - US scientists have found the oldest fossilized tracks of a tiny legged animal, from 570 million years ago, that push back the advent of more complex creatures on Earth by some 30 million years, a report said Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT The fossilized trails, thought to belong to a centipede or a leg-bearing worm that lived in the water, were found in sedimentary rocks in the US state of Nevada, said Ohio State University geology professor and the study's chief author Loren Babcock. The finding, as reported to the Geological Society of America meeting Sunday in Houston, Texas, shatters the belief that pre-Cambrian life on Earth was restricted to microbes and simple, multicellular organisms. The tracks, two parallel rows of small dots, each about two millimeters in diameter, date back some 570 million years, to the Ediacaran period (630-542 million years ago). They suggest that animals walked using legs at least 30 million years earlier than had been thought. The Cambrian period (543-490 million years ago) saw an evolutionary explosion that produced most of the major animal groups we know today. "We keep talking about the possibility of more complex animals in the Ediacaran -- soft corals, some arthropods, and flatworms -- but the evidence has not been totally convincing," Babcock said. "But if you find evidence, like we did, of an animal with legs -- an animal walking around -- then that makes the possibility much more likely," he added. He said he was "reasonably certain" the the trails were made by a centipede-like arthropod or a leg-bearing worm with a centimeter-wide body. A fossil of the actual animal would be more definitive, so Babcock said he would continue searching the area of Nevada that was covered by a shallow sea 570 million years ago, where the "accidental discovery" of the ancient trails was made. He said other potential sites for similar Eciacaran fossils include the White Sea area of Russia, South Australia, Newfoundland and Namibia. In 2002, other researchers found a similar fossil trail from Canada that dated back to the middle of the Cambrian period, about 520 million years ago. Another set of tracks found in South China date back to 540 million years ago
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The Fed said it is invoking a Depression-era power to buy commercial paper, a short-term financing mechanism that many companies rely on to finance their day-to-day operations, such as purchasing supplies or making payrolls. The $99.4 billion daily market for this crucial financing, which relies on investors rather than banks, has virtually dried up as most investors have become too worried to buy paper for longer than a couple days. There are hopes that the Fed's move on commercial paper may be replicated in Europe too, even though the European Central Bank hasn't got explicit authority to do so and that commercial paper does not feature as prominently in the 15-nation single currency zone. Jacques Cailloux, economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said the ECB could already have the ability to do such purchases through open market operations the bank already has as a tool to provide banks with liquidity. "It looks to us that the ECB has already got the framework that could allow it to buy commercial paper in the euro area directly from their issuers," said Cailloux.
Europe's markets were in positive territory earlier on hopes that the world's leading central banks will cut interest rates soon, possibly in a coordinated manner to deal with the world financial crisis.
The move sent Sydney's S&P/ASX-200 index, which had opened 3.7 percent lower, up 1.7 percent to 4,618.7 and helped the Australian dollar push back up above 72.56 U.S. cents. Other markets, including the main indexes in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, rebounded after the bold move and market observers said the same could happen if other central banks follow suit. The Bank of England is now seen as almost certain to cut interest rates on Thursday, with the questions now being asked are whether it will reduce borrowing costs by half a point to 4.50 percent for the first time in seven years. There has been speculation the Bank of England might join the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in a simultaneous cut. RBS was not the only British banking stock in trouble amid news reports that the chief executives of Britain's largest banks met up with British Treasury chief Alistair Darling and Bank of England governor Mervyn King Monday night to discuss the possibility of the government providing funding, thought to be around 50 billion pounds, in exchange for stakes in the banks. Lloyds TSB PLC, which is in the process of taking over HBOS PLC, was down 11.0 percent, while Barclays PLC, which has denied it is asking for government funding, was 4.5 percent lower.
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