Animals went bioluminescent 273 million years earlier than scientists previously thought and in a completely different species.

A group of scientists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History used genetic data and statistical modelling to demonstrate that bioluminescence - the ability of living things to produce light through chemical reactions - first evolved in marine invertebrates called octocorals about 540 million years ago.

Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study from scientists with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

This discovery predates the previously established earliest occurrence of bioluminescence in animals by nearly 300 million years.