Analysis knocks down theory on origin of cell structure
(PhysOrg.com) -- Understanding how living cells originated and evolved into their present forms remains a fundamental research area in biology, one boosted in recent years by the introduction of new...
View ArticleHow did higher life evolve? Scientists determine the complete genome sequence...
With the world's first complete sequencing of a brown algal genome, an international research team has made a big leap towards understanding the evolution of two key prerequisites for higher life on...
View ArticleOxygen fuels the fires of time
Variations in the Earth's atmospheric oxygen levels are thought to be closely linked to the evolution of life, with strong feedbacks between uni- and multicellular life and oxygen. Over the past 400...
View ArticleMapping the chemistry needed for life at Europa
(Phys.org) —A new paper led by a NASA researcher shows that hydrogen peroxide is abundant across much of the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. The authors argue that if the peroxide on the surface of...
View ArticleResearchers discover new organism: Finding will help scientists understand...
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have discovered and characterized a new organism that will help scientists understand the molecular mechanisms and ancestral genetic toolkit that enabled...
View ArticleStudy shows size matters in prehistoric seas
Why did life forms first begin to get larger and what advantage did this increase in size provide? UCLA biologists working with an international team of scientists examined the earliest communities of...
View ArticleGeometry, programmed death might have enabled evolution of multicellularity
Geometry and programmed cell death may have helped along the evolution of multicellular life, according to new research led by SFI Omidyar Fellow Eric Libby.
View ArticleHow did multicellular life evolve?
Scientists are discovering ways in which single cells might have evolved traits that entrenched them into group behavior, paving the way for multicellular life. These discoveries could shed light on...
View ArticleAncient lake challenges understanding of evolution
An ancient lake could hold the key to our understanding of how complex life evolved on Earth, according to research carried out by the University of Aberdeen.
View ArticleBacteria cooperate to repair damaged siblings
A University of Wyoming faculty member led a research team that discovered a certain type of soil bacteria can use their social behavior of outer membrane exchange (OME) to repair damaged cells and...
View ArticleThe fuel of evolution: A new hypothesis about how complex life emerged on Earth
When life on Earth first emerged about 4 billion years ago, it was simple by today's standards.
View Article550 million years ago rise in oxygen drove evolution of animal life
Researchers at the University of Oxford have uncovered a clue that may help to explain why the earliest evidence of complex multicellular animal life appears around 550 million years ago, when...
View ArticleEvolutionary molecule identified by researchers
(Phys.org) -- Researchers at the University of Dundee have identified a molecule that could play a key role in how cells develop into the building blocks of life.
View ArticlePrimitive forms of complex human processes identified in Amoeba
(Phys.org)—The evolution of multicellularity marks one of the most profound evolutionary developments contributing to the appearance of human and animal life on the planet. However, with relatively...
View ArticleOxygen-poor 'boring' ocean challenged evolution of early life, research finds
A research team led by biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has filled in a billion-year gap in our understanding of conditions in the early ocean during a critical time in the...
View ArticleNew evidence of ancient multicellular life sets evolutionary timeline back 60...
(Phys.org) —A Virginia Tech geobiologist with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence in the fossil record that complex multicellularity appeared in living things about...
View ArticleThe origins of multicellular life
The biological world around us is dominated by multicellular plants and animals. All of these intricate forms have evolved from far simpler, single celled ancestors.
View ArticleHow did life become complex, and could it happen beyond Earth?
When astrobiologists contemplate life on nearby planets or moons, they often suggest such life would be simple. Instead of there being some kind of multicellular organism on, say, Jupiter's moon...
View ArticleAge and fertility in social insects
A new research unit coordinated at the University of Freiburg tackles the question of why the otherwise usual trade-off between fecundity and lifespan in multicellular organisms is not present in...
View ArticleSex among eukaryotes is far more common than once believed
(Phys.org)—For a long time, biologists have considered sex to be an inherent trait of multicellular life, while microbial eukaryotes were considered to be either optionally sexual or purely clonal....
View ArticleStudy finds people transformed how species associated after 300 million years
A study published today finds a surprising and very recent shift away from the steady relationship among species that prevailed for more than 300 million years.
View ArticleAncient seaweed fossils document some of the oldest multicellular life
Homing in on when life on Earth evolved from single-celled to multicellular organisms is no easy task. Organisms that old lacked many distinguishing characteristics of modern life forms, making their...
View ArticleHow and why single cell organisms evolved into multicellular life
Throughout the history of life on Earth, multicellular life evolved from single cells numerous times, but explaining how this happened is one of the major evolutionary puzzles of our time. However,...
View ArticleComplex life a billion years earlier than thought?
Researchers said Tuesday they had uncovered fossils showing that complex life on Earth began more than 1.5 billion years ago, nearly a billion years earlier than previously thought.
View ArticleScientist explores the likelihood of complex life existing elsewhere in the...
If the origin of life is common on other worlds, the universe should be a cosmic zoo full of complex multicellular organisms. Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a Washington State University astrobiologist, uses the...
View ArticleMutation that triggered multicellular life altered protein flexibility
Just as a boat can be driven off course by a log in its path, a single, random mutation can send life in a new direction. That scenario, says University of Oregon biochemist Ken Prehoda, illustrates...
View Article
