A type of Streptomyces bacterium that lives in soil forms multicellular structures in which some bacterial cells have specialised roles, like the cells of complex organisms – and a computer model suggests how this phenomenon evolved
Bacterial colonies can organize themselves into complex ring-like patterns which have an "intriguing similarity" to developing embryos and were thought to be unique to plants and animals, new research suggests.
30 APRIL 2021
A teeny tiny fossil found in the Scottish Highlands could be a missing link in the evolutionary history of animals.
Dated to around a billion years ago, the microfossil shows evidence of two distinctly different types of cells, and it seems to belong to an ancient organism somewhere between unicellular and multicellular animals. This makes it possibly the oldest fossil of its kind on record, a discovery that could provide insight into how and where animal life evolved.
The origins of complex multicellularity and the origin of animals are considered two of the most important events in the history of life on Earth, our discovery sheds new light on both of these, said palaeobiologist Charles Wellman of the University of Sheffield in the UK.
bennu phoenix/Alamy
A tiny organism that lived a billion years ago had two different cell types, one forming its core and another its outer “skin”. It may have been one of the first life forms built that way, making it a crucial step towards modern organisms like animals that also have a skin that is distinct from the cells inside the body.
“This fossil clearly is multicellular with two different types of cell,” says Charles Wellman at the University of Sheffield, UK. While organisms made of multiple … Continue reading Subscribe now for unlimited access
App + Web