According to the Australian National University, scientists have learned new details about some strange ancient creatures who are our animal ancestors thanks to the 'final meals' eaten by some of the earliest known animals.

Some of the world's earliest big animals are part of the Ediacaran biota, or lifeforms that existed on Earth during the Ediacaran period about 575 million years ago. The researchers examined prehistoric fossils that still had phytosterol molecules in them for the study that was published in Current Biology. Animal fossils from their last meal contain phytosterol molecules, which are chemical byproducts of plants.

 The scientists were able to confirm the physiology of a slug-like organism named Kimberella by analysing the molecular remnants of what they consumed. The scientists concluded that it had a mouth and a gut and processed food similarly to contemporary mammals. 

It was probably one of the most technologically adept organisms on the globe during the Ediacaran era, according to the Australian National University. Dickinsonia, a different organism that could reach lengths of 1.4 metres, was also discovered by the research team to have a 'rib-like design' on its body. 

It was a simple creature without eyes, a mouth, or a gut. Instead, the curious animal walked across the ocean floor while ingesting food. According to research, the Ediacaran biota, which inhabited Earth before the 'Cambrian Explosion' of modern animal life, included both bizarre creatures like Dickinsonia and more advanced creatures like Kimberella that already shared some physiological traits with humans and other living things today. 

Bobrovskiy refers to a time period known as the 'Cambrian explosion' in which almost all major phyla (groups of related animal species) started to appear in fossil records. About 20 million years before the Cambrian explosion, Kimberella and Dickinsonia both had structures that were unlike anything found on Earth today.