Aussie farmer finds oldest vertebrate fossil yet

"A sheep farmer in Australia has discovered a fossil of the world's oldest vertebrate - the common ancestor of all animals with a backbone.

Sheep station owner Ross Fargher found the fossil among a number of strange shapes embedded in sandstone slabs on his farm - but after taking it home, he left it on his veranda for four years before scientists identified its importance.

At 560 million years old, the fossil is around 30 million years older than the next oldest vertebrate remains found so far, in China.

Read more @ BBC Science News.