Ancient Single Cell Challenges Evolutionary Timeline of Multicellular Life
Researchers have discovered that the ancient single-celled organism Chromosphaera perkinsii can form multicellular structures similar to early animal embryos, suggesting that the genetic mechanisms for embryonic development may have existed over a billion years ago, before the first animals appeared. This finding, published in Nature, could provide insights into the transition from unicellular to multicellular life and challenge existing views on the evolution of multicellularity.