The 'earliest' heart: 520mil-year-old fossil reveals its cardiovascular system

It may be ancient but it had a heart: 'Fuxianhuia protensa', a primitive precursor to crustaceans, is the earliest creature we know that had a cardiovascular system.

Scientists have found a 520 million-year-old Chinese fossil of a shrimp-like creature with an exquisitely preserved heart and blood vessels that represent the oldest-known cardiovascular system.

Named Fuxianhuia protensa, the creature was a primitive arthropod, a group of invertebrates with external skeletons that includes crustaceans like crabs, lobsters and shrimp as well as insects, spiders and millipedes.