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Explorations / The history of the cell / Part 6 of 7

Many cells

How cells that stayed together after dividing came to share out the work and become bodies, many separate times, and what the oldest fossils of many-celled life show. 7 scenes.

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Part 1, A planet without life, is open to everyone.

In this part
  1. Today, and many times in the pastStaying together
  2. TodayDividing the work
  3. TodayMany separate starts
  4. TodayThe animals' nearest relatives
  5. About 2.1 billion years ago (debated)A debated beginning
  6. About 1.05 billion years agoA red alga
  7. From about 574 million years agoBodies on the sea floor
Practise this 4.5Differentiation and Stem CellsBiology →9.1Levels of OrganizationBiology →4.2Mitosis and CytokinesisBiology →
← Part 5 · The cell that swallowed a bacterium Part 7 · The tree today →
The history of the cell, in order
  1. A planet without life
  2. The first cells· locked
  3. Two kinds of simple cell· locked
  4. Oxygen changes everything· locked
  5. The cell that swallowed a bacterium· locked
  6. Many cells
  7. The tree today· locked
Sources
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  • David L. Kirk (2005). A twelve-step program for evolving multicellularity and a division of labor. BioEssays 27(3): 299–310.
  • Matthew D. Herron, Jeremiah D. Hackett, Frank O. Aylward and Richard E. Michod (2009). Triassic origin and early radiation of multicellular volvocine algae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(9): 3254–3258.
  • Richard K. Grosberg and Richard R. Strathmann (2007). The evolution of multicellularity: A minor major transition? Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 38: 621–654.
  • Karl J. Niklas and Stuart A. Newman (2020). The many roads to and from multicellularity. Journal of Experimental Botany 71(11): 3247–3253.
  • Andrew H. Knoll (2011). The multiple origins of complex multicellularity. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 39: 217–239.
  • Nicole King and others (2008). The genome of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis and the origin of metazoans. Nature 451: 783–788.
  • Stephen R. Fairclough, Mark J. Dayel and Nicole King (2010). Multicellular development in a choanoflagellate. Current Biology 20(20): R875–R876.
  • Rosanna A. Alegado and others (2012). A bacterial sulfonolipid triggers multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals. eLife 1: e00013.
  • Thibaut Brunet and Nicole King (2017). The origin of animal multicellularity and cell differentiation. Developmental Cell 43(2): 124–140.
  • Abderrazak El Albani and others (2010). Large colonial organisms with coordinated growth in oxygenated environments 2.1 Gyr ago. Nature 466: 100–104.
  • Abderrazak El Albani and others (2014). The 2.1 Ga old Francevillian biota: Biogenicity, taphonomy and biodiversity. PLOS ONE 9(6): e99438.
  • Emmanuelle J. Javaux and Kevin Lepot (2018). The Paleoproterozoic fossil record: Implications for the evolution of the biosphere during Earth's middle-age. Earth-Science Reviews 176: 68–86.
  • Lanyun Miao, Zongjun Yin, Andrew H. Knoll, Yuangao Qu and Maoyan Zhu (2024). 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular eukaryotes from the Chuanlinggou Formation in North China. Science Advances 10: eadk3208.
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  • Timothy M. Gibson and others (2018). Precise age of Bangiomorpha pubescens dates the origin of eukaryotic photosynthesis. Geology 46(2): 135–138.
  • Judy P. Pu and others (2016). Dodging snowballs: Geochronology of the Gaskiers glaciation and the first appearance of the Ediacaran biota. Geology 44(11): 955–958.
  • Jack J. Matthews and others (2021). A chronostratigraphic framework for the rise of the Ediacaran macrobiota: New constraints from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland. GSA Bulletin 133(3–4): 612–624.
  • Ilya Bobrovskiy and others (2018). Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals. Science 361: 1246–1249.