Scottish fossil confirmed as earliest breathing creature

A FOSSIL discovered on a Scottish beach has been confirmed as the earliest known creature to live on dry land, it emerged yesterday.

The fossilised millipede, which is less than one centimetre long, was found a year ago on the shore at Cowie Harbour near Stonehaven, a fishing town just south of Aberdeen.

Scientists say it is around 420 million-years-old, some 20 million years older than what had previously been believed to be the oldest breathing animal a spider-like creature chiselled out of the chert, a type of rock, at Rhynie, also in Aberdeenshire.