http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/bicellum-brasieri-09615.html

Bicellum brasieri, a freshwater protist that lived nearly one billion years ago, had two distinct cell types and could be the earliest multicellular animal ever recorded. Found in the Scottish Highlands, the microfossil reveals a new insight into the transition of single-celled holozoans into more complex multicellular animals.

 

“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 Professor Charles Wellman, a researcher in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield.

Professor Wellman and colleagues examined thin sections of phosphatic lenses from the Diabaig Formation in Scotland that preserve populations of organisms trapped in ancient lake bottom sediments.

In several thin sections, they observed cell clusters that are composed of aggregations of two distinct cell types, indicating a condition that constitutes a step toward complex multicellularity.

Further investigation revealed a second set of cell clusters that appeared very similar in size and form but that lacked the fully differentiated second cell type.

more at link................

Duplicate of thread started by @joigus last Friday:

https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/124936-billion-year-old-fossil-reveals-missing-link-in-the-evolution-of-animals/

 

Edited May 4, 20214 yr by exchemist

Thanks exchemist...off goes my head, on goes a pumpkin!!

Can I kindly mod amalgamate this with the other? please?

Edited May 4, 20214 yr by beecee

1 hour ago, beecee said:

Thanks exchemist...off goes my head, on goes a pumpkin!!

Can I kindly mod amalgamate this with the other? please?

No offence on my part. My thread got trolled soon enough. I wonder if protists are this wonderfully complex meta-kingdom where multicellular life arose. A powerful platform for evolutionary experimentation, so to speak. I know that kelp are the only surviving protists that are multi-cellular. If you take a look at protists, there are amazingly varied solutions to the basic problem of how to survive and pass on your genes.

25 minutes ago, joigus said:

No offence on my part.

Thanks...I even had contributed to your thread when you posted it!

My only excuse is that I had just had eye cataract surgery and still had one eye covered. [That'l do anyway till I think of something better! 😊

2 hours ago, beecee said:

My only excuse is that I had just had eye cataract surgery and still had one eye covered. [That'l do anyway till I think of something better! 😊

I just went through this in April too, and I can attest that the one-eye-covered part is the worst! Reading should never make one nauseous unless it's the news.