New fossils push algal origins back to 600 million years

A recently published paper describes some fantastic fossil finds from China that date to the earliest era of multicellular life. The fossil deposits date from the Ediacaran, a period in which the first multicellular life was evident. Most of the Ediacaran fossils we're aware of come from a bizarre and extinct group called the rangeomorphs (PDF), The new fossils appear to be even older than the rangeomorphs, but include forms that could be mistaken for modern algae.

Many of the major groups of multicellular life first evolved during the Cambrian, which started about 540 million years ago. There is evidence of multicellular life before that, in fossils of the deep ocean in the Ediacaran, which started at the end of the last global glaciation. But the rangeomorphs seen then look bizarre and unfamiliar to modern eyes, consisting of a collection of similar segments, odd fronds, and few signs of complex, specialized cell types.

Read the comments on this post

Teri Polo Summer Altice Rose McGowan Bar Refaeli Jessica White