550-million-year-old worm-like creature is earliest known right-handed animal

Fossil analysis of a worm-like creature from what is now South Australia shows it consistently preferred turning right while wriggling across the ocean floor around 550 million years ago during the Ediacaran period. This makes it the earliest known animal to exhibit directional asymmetry, or "handedness." The finding offers new insight into how body asymmetry evolved in the animal kingdom.