Apr 7, 2024
Scientists Discover ‘Unusual’ Third Path to Multicellular Lifeforms
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biological, evolution
Just when scientists thought they had almost figured out the origins of multicellular life, evolution throws another curveball.
In a serendipitous discovery, a team of researchers has just chanced upon a third type of ‘unconventional’ multicellularity that blends the two kinds we already knew about.
Multicellularity has evolved a staggering 45 times or more across the tree of life. Yet fundamentally, the ancestor of each multicellular lineage relied on just one of two methods — individual cells sticking together as they split, or individual cells that have previously split coming back together.