Microbes that gave rise to all plants and animals became multicellular 1.6 billion years ago or 600 million years earlier than previously thought

Amazing stuff! And this is about land-based life. What will we find in the oceans one day? See also my recent post here on photosynthesis.

"A new study describing a microscopic, algalike fossil dating back more than 1.6 billion years supports the idea that one of the hallmarks of the complex life we see around us—multicellularity— is much older than previously thought. Together with other recent research, the fossil, reported today in Science Advances, suggests the lineage known as eukaryotes— which features compartmentalized cells and includes everything from redwoods to jellies to people—became multicellular some 600 million years earlier than scientists once generally thought. ..."

From the abstract:
"Multicellularity is key to the functional and ecological success of the Eukarya, underpinning much of their modern diversity in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Despite the widespread occurrence of simple multicellular organisms among eukaryotes, when this innovation arose remains an open question. Here, we report cellularly preserved multicellular microfossils (Qingshania magnifica) from the ~1635-million-year-old Chuanlinggou Formation, North China. The fossils consist of large uniseriate, unbranched filaments with cell diameters up to 190 micrometers; spheroidal structures, possibly spores, occur within some cells. In combination with spectroscopic characteristics, the large size and morphological complexity of these fossils support their interpretation as eukaryotes, likely photosynthetic, based on comparisons with extant organisms. The occurrence of multicellular eukaryotes in Paleoproterozoic rocks not much younger than those containing the oldest unambiguous evidence of eukaryotes as a whole supports the hypothesis that simple multicellularity arose early in eukaryotic history, as much as a billion years before complex multicellular organisms diversified in the oceans."

Microbes that gave rise to all plants and animals became multicellular 1.6 billion years ago, tiny fossils reveal Early eukaryotes found in ancient Chinese rock formation offer a “grand vision of life”

1.63-billion-year-old multicellular eukaryotes from the Chuanlinggou Formation in North China (open access)

Fig. 1. Transmitted-light (TL) photomicrographs of Q. magnifica from the Chuanlinggou Formation.