Ursäkta att jag väcker liv i en gammal tråd, men när jag tittade på tidskriften Sciences lista över de mest spännande upptäckterna under 2024 så finns det med en som pekar på att eukaryot, flercelligt liv möjligen kan ha uppstått betydligt tidigare än vad man först har trott. Nästan 1 miljard år tidigare.
"Microscopic algalike fossils from China reported early this year astounded evolutionary biologists with their extreme age. Dated at 1.6 billion years old, the specimens suggest one of the hallmarks of complex life—multicellularity—arose far earlier than previously thought.
Researchers used to think eukaryotes—organisms that pack their DNA into a nucleus, including all plants, animals, and fungi—first existed as single cells for 1 billion years before linking up into chains of cells. Once that happened, the way was paved for organisms with more complex bodies, which extensively proliferated about 550 million years ago. The
new discovery suggests instead that simple multicellular eukaryotes arose 1 billion years before the emergence of more complex body plans, which included cells that lack direct access to the outside environment."
Länk med mer information.