Our alien-like cousins from the past

More than 100 years since they were first discovered, some of the world's most bizarre fossils have been identified by researchers from the University of Adelaide as distant relatives of humans.

The fossils belong to 500 million-year-old blind water creatures known to scientists as 'vetulicolians'.

"Although not directly related to humans in the evolutionary line, we can confirm that these ancient water creatures are among our distant cousins," claimed lead study author Diego Garcia-Bellido from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute.

Alien-like in appearance, 'vetulicolians' had a long tail supported by a stiff rod.

"This rod resembles a notochord which is the precursor of the backbone and is unique to vertebrates and their relatives," Garcia-Bellido added.

The latest insights into vetulicolians have come from new fossils discovered on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia.

The paper was published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.