brasieri is used to honor the late paleontologist and study co-author, Martin Brasier.
These fossils appear as tiny microscopic balls, each containing two different kinds of cells. The cells inside the ball are round and tightly-packed with thin cell walls. The outer layer or surface of the balls, however, are composed of longer, sausage-shaped cells that have thicker cell walls.
These fossils are clearly of multicelled organisms, the scientists say, albeit simple ones. But there’s an interesting puzzle. The fossils were found in ancient lake sediments, but most scientists think that multicellular life first began to appear in Earth’s primordial oceans.