I have always had just one question. What triggered single celled organisms to cooperate and become multi-cell creatures? I mean, I understand the theory of evolution and such and I understand the creationist theory and the intelligent design theories. But what I don’t understand and what has never been satisfactorily answered to me is what mechanism brought on multi-cellular life.
I guess my feelings on life are that God brought the Universe into being and through his guiding hand brought life to the level we are at. Be this through evolution or other means, I don’t know. The tripping block for me in regards to “accidental life” is that there is no mechanism except intelligence that can make the huge leap from single cell to multi-cell life.
If someone has a viable theory, please share it. I’m not taking sides or making challenges, I’m just curious as to what may have caused the change and specifically why.
Mike
It doesn’t really seem that difficult to me.
And it wouldn’t seem to be all one big jump, either. In between single-celled organisms and true multi-celled organisms are creatures that serve more as a colony of interdependent cells, like sponges.
From the wikipedia article on multi-celled organisms:
Hypotheses for origin
There are various mechanisms which are disputed as being the first responsible for the emergence of multicellularity, but it is difficult to say which is correct. This is because all the suggested mechanisms are viable, but establishing which was responsible for the first multicellular life requires mostly speculation.[3]
One hypothesis is that a group of function-specific cells aggregated into a slug-like mass called a grex, which moved as a multicellular unit. Another hypothesis is that a primitive cell underwent nucleus division, thereby becoming a syncytium. A membrane would then form around each neucleus (and the cellular space and organelles occupied in the space), thereby resulting in a group of connected and specialised cells in one organism (this mechanism is observable in Drosophila). A third theory is that, as a unicellular organism divided, the daughter cells failed to separate, thereby resulting in a conglomeration of identical cells in one organism which could each then specialize.