Neither animal nor bacteria

Cientists have been perplexed with the origin of an unusually complex appearance of a group of 570-million-year-old fossils from Doushantuo, China. 

The discovery has sparked debate among palaeontologists but researchers haven't been able to decide whether the remains come from animals, bacteria or close relatives of animals that thrived at the dawn of animal evolution. 

But a team has now used three-dimensional scanning techniques to take a closer look at the fossils — and has decided that in fact, they are none of these.
more here

X-ray microtomography reveals the shape of the 'cell nuclei' (yellow) in a computer model of a fossil from Doushantuo in China, shown against the backdrop of the rock in which it is found.
- Swedish Museum of Natural History -