Pluricellular living beings can be on Earth much sooner than previously thought

2014/10/01 Jauregi Larretxea, Oihana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Eboluzioa
• Geologia
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

For billions of years since the creation of Earth, only unicellular organisms lived on our planet. So far, researchers considered that these organisms had evolved sharply some 540 million years ago and that many new species emerged, including the first pluricellular beings. This event is known as the explosion of Cambodia.

However, after research conducted by a team at Virginia Tech College of Science, they have come to the conclusion that this evolution could have started earlier.

The fossils analyzed are rare, of a small and round organism. The detailed study of its characteristics is complex since they are very different from the current beings.

In fossils, the three-dimensional structure of living beings was preserved, and evidence of cell specialization was found after their study. In addition, they appear to contain programmed cell death and separation of reproductive cells. Therefore, researchers claim that these fossils are probably not bacteria, as they have similarities with complex multicellular organisms.

This study, published in the journal Nature, has shown that pluricellular beings could be on Earth before the Cambrian era.

The researcher participating in the study, Shujai Xiao, explained that after these results new hypotheses have been created, among which is the possibility that the pluricellular fossils found are transmitting organisms of animals and subsequent algae. But scientists claim that much remains to be investigated, to know where these fossils are in the evolution of life.