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Life

Colonies of single-celled creatures could explain how embryos evolved

We know little about how embryonic development in animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, but simple organisms with a multicellular life stage offer intriguing clues

By Claire Ainsworth

17 April 2024

Chromosphaera perkinsii resembles the early stages of animal embryo development during its multicellular life stage

DudinLab

A single-celled creature originally found in shallow sea sediments around Hawaii develops into multicellular structures with remarkable similarities to animal embryos. The finding could help scientists understand more about how and when embryonic development evolved.

One of the biggest questions in biology is how a single cell, the fertilised egg, coordinates its development into a complex multicellular body with many different cell types all doing the right things in the right places. Researchers have learned a…

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