Yilingia spiciformis is a worm-like animal that lived between approximately 551 million and 539 million years ago in the Ediacaran period, around 10 million years before the Cambrian explosion.

A fossil of this creature and its tracks were discovered in 2019 in Southern China.

[1] It was a segmented bilaterian, conceivably related to panarthropods or annelids.

It is a rare example of a complex Ediacaran animal that is similar to animals that existed since the Cambrian, hence suggesting that perhaps the Cambrian explosion was less sudden than often assumed.

[2] The fossils make Yilingia one of the oldest known animals to be capable of making decisions and moving on its own.