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Researchers unveiled 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular fossils from North China, marking the oldest record of multicellular eukaryotes and pushing back the timeline for the emergence of multicellularity in eukaryotes by about 70 million years. This discovery highlights the complexity of early life forms and supports the early appearance of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) in the evolutionary history. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Researchers have discovered the oldest multicellular eukaryotic fossils, dated at 1.63 billion years, in North China, revealing early complex life forms and suggesting an earlier emergence of multicellularity. In a study published in Science Advances on January 24,...

The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments, and has been traditionally linked to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study authored by Mirna Kramar (MPIDS) and Prof. Karen Alim (TUM and MPIDS) challenges this view by uncovering surprising abilities of a highly dynamic, single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment. Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades. Existing at the crossroads between the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, this unique organism provides insight into the early evolutionary history...

Scientists have unearthed fossilized fungi in the remote Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic dating back to one billion years, in a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how life first arrived on land from the oceans. Fungi, the “Hidden Kingdom,” are not plants. Living things are organized for study into large, basic groups called kingdoms. Fungi were listed in the Plant Kingdom for many years. Then scientists learned that fungi show a closer relation to animals, but are unique and separate life forms. Most fungi build their cell walls out of chitin. This is the same material as...

DENVER — Life on Earth got into the shell game more than 200 million years earlier than previously thought. Fossilized eukaryotes — complex life-forms that include animals and plants — discovered in Canada are decked out in armorlike layers of mineral plates, paleobiologist Phoebe Cohen said September 27 at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. At about 809 million years old, the find is the oldest evidence of organisms controlling the formation of minerals, a process called biomineralization. ********* The mineral plates themselves are odd. Most modern microbes make shells out of calcium carbonate, but the ancient shells are...

Failed expectations are not necessarily a problem for a theory. [1] But what if fundamental predictions are consistently falsified? As we shall see this is the case with Darwin’s theory of evolution...