Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral ... Many of these metabolic genes appear to have been ...

How does multicellularity evolve? Scientists who study a family of green algae that includes unicellular Chlamydomonas and multicellular Volvox are beginning to find answers to this question.

The oldest multicellular algae fossil dates to 1,200 mya. At this time, biological diversity increases greatly, with algae, fungi, animals, and plants diverging from their common eukaryote ancestors.

The film explores the significance of algae, a vital group of simple plants found in various environments, particularly in ...

Some lineages shown here that contain some multicellular species, such as the chlorophycean algae (of which the volvocine algae are members) also include several colonial species. For simplicity ...

Infographic: The Evolution of Volvox View full size JPG | PDF Lucy Reading-Ikkanda (diagrams and cells); SOURCE: David L. Kirk The volvocine algae are a model system for studying the evolution of ...

“This work confirms what many have expected based on the existing, though sparse fossil record, which is that green algae likely existed about a billion years ago.” P. antiquus was a marine, ...