From Newsgroup: talk.origins


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

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From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023. I do not know why
this article took so long to be published. The claim is that it is an
active and growing field of study, but no recent publications are cited.
Normally news articles like this are published soon after the main
paper that they are talking about, but that paper was published in 2023.
Maybe the article just forgot to cite the current publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

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From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 8/28/25 7:31 AM, RonO wrote:

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023.-a I do not know why this article took so long to be published.-a The claim is that it is an active and growing field of study, but no recent publications are cited.
-aNormally news articles like this are published soon after the main
paper that they are talking about, but that paper was published in 2023.
-aMaybe the article just forgot to cite the current publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

What strikes me is the relative ease of starting life from scratch
(maybe as early as 250 Mya after the formation of the moon for LUCA)
compared to how long it took (at least 2 billion year to get to
eukayotes) and an addition 1.5 billion(?) to get to multicellular
organisms with cell differentiation. "Fermi's paradox" doesn't seem too paradoxical. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence looksto be a
long shot.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 8/28/25 7:31 AM, RonO wrote:

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023.-a I do not know why this article took so long to be published.-a The claim is that it is an active and growing field of study, but no recent publications are cited.
-aNormally news articles like this are published soon after the main
paper that they are talking about, but that paper was published in 2023.
-aMaybe the article just forgot to cite the current publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

What strikes me is the relative ease of starting life from scratch
(maybe as early as 250 Mya after the formation of the moon for LUCA)
compared to how long it took (at least 2 billion year to get to
eukayotes) and an addition 1.5 billion(?) to get to multicellular
organisms with cell differentiation. "Fermi's paradox" doesn't seem too paradoxical. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence looks to be a
long shot.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 9/1/2025 10:22 AM, erik simpson wrote:

On 8/28/25 7:31 AM, RonO wrote:

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023.-a I do not know
why this article took so long to be published.-a The claim is that it
is an active and growing field of study, but no recent publications
are cited. -a-aNormally news articles like this are published soon after
the main paper that they are talking about, but that paper was
published in 2023. -a-aMaybe the article just forgot to cite the current
publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates
that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most
basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

What strikes me is the relative ease of starting life from scratch
(maybe as early as 250 Mya after the formation of the moon for LUCA) compared to how long it took (at least 2 billion year to get to
eukayotes) and an addition 1.5 billion(?) to get to multicellular
organisms with cell differentiation.-a "Fermi's paradox" doesn't seem too paradoxical.-a The search for extraterrestrial intelligence looksto be a long shot.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02461-1

This paper claims that the LUCA (last universal common ancestor) for
Archaea and eubacteria existed before 4.2 billion years ago. The
planetary collision that formed the moon and left the earth in a molten
state is thought to have occurred around 4.5 billion years ago. The
claim in this paper is that the LUCA was already transitioning from
being a chemotroph to being phototrophic. This LUCA apparently had
genes needed for anaerobic photosynthesis before Archaea and eubacteria
split up. If you look at their phylogeny there was a lot of time for horizontal gene transfer to have occurred between the two lineages. I
noted at the time that this was evidence that life originated somewhere
else and came to earth, probably, already two separate bacterial
lineages. You have to create the LUCA within a couple hundred million
years.

LUCA had evolved the double membrane and proton pumps and ATPase to
generate energy transfer molecules from salts, and may have been using
the double membrane for anaerobic photosynthesis using a proton gradient.

If you look at the phylogeny you would see that they predict some
catastrophic event that nearly wiped out life on earth that would have occurred around 3.2 billion years ago that left only two lineages of
life (Archaea and eubacteria). These would be single "species"
essentially two populations of clonal daughter cells out of all the
different cellular lineages that would have evolved over a period of a
billion years. We do not have extant lineages for either group that
branch off before 3.2 billion years ago. This is the craziest thing
about the paper, and they do not make a big deal about it even though it
looks like life was nearly snuffed out on Earth 3.2 billion years ago. Essentially two pockets of life survived somewhere to repopulate the earth.

Something like this could also be the result of Nykosian directed
panspermia if only two bacterial types were seeded from somewhere else
onto this planet.

Ron Okimoto


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From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 01/09/2025 17:49, erik simpson wrote:

On 8/28/25 7:31 AM, RonO wrote:

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023.-a I do not know
why this article took so long to be published.-a The claim is that it
is an active and growing field of study, but no recent publications
are cited. -a-aNormally news articles like this are published soon after
the main paper that they are talking about, but that paper was
published in 2023. -a-aMaybe the article just forgot to cite the current
publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates
that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most
basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

What strikes me is the relative ease of starting life from scratch
(maybe as early as 250 Mya after the formation of the moon for LUCA) compared to how long it took (at least 2 billion year to get to
eukayotes) and an addition 1.5 billion(?) to get to multicellular
organisms with cell differentiation.-a "Fermi's paradox" doesn't seem too paradoxical.-a The search for extraterrestrial intelligence looks to be a long shot.

Bangiomorpha is widely accepted as a multicellular red algae, at over 1 billion years ago. Rafatazmia and Ramathallus, at over 1.5 billion years
ago, are proposed to be filamentous red algae. Nostocaceae (filamentous cyanobacteria with cellular differentiation may go back well 2 billion
years).
--
alias Ernest Major

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From Newsgroup: talk.origins

On 8/28/25 7:31 AM, RonO wrote:

On 8/27/2025 11:59 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02635-2

For some three billion years, unicellular
organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion
years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early
attempts at team living began to stick, paving the
way for the evolution of complex organisms,
including animals, plants and fungi.

Across all known life, the move to
multicellularity happened at least 40 times,
suggests one study. But, in animals, it seems
to have occurred only once.

Beginning in the early 2000s, researchers
interested in this remarkable event made a
series of unexpected discoveries. The prevailing
view held that a flood of genes had to evolve to
enable the key properties of multicellularity:
the ability of cells to stick together,
communication using molecular signals and the
coordinated regulation of gene expression that
causes each cell to specialize and take its
position in the organism. But studies found that
some unicellular organisms express a slew of
proteins that control key properties of
multicellularity in animals. The molecular
toolkit required for multicellularity seems to
have existed well before the first animals came
to be.
...

This seems to be a review of the subject until 2023.-a I do not know why this article took so long to be published.-a The claim is that it is an active and growing field of study, but no recent publications are cited.
-aNormally news articles like this are published soon after the main
paper that they are talking about, but that paper was published in 2023.
-aMaybe the article just forgot to cite the current publication that the article is about.

I think that in their figure phylogeny including choanoflagellates that Porifera (sponges) would be on the Metazoan branch as the most basal multicellular type of animal.

Ron Okimoto

What strikes me is the relative ease of starting life from scratch
(maybe as early as 250 Mya after the formation of the moon for LUCA)
compared to how long it took (at least 2 billion year to get to
eukayotes) and an addition 1.5 billion(?) to get to multicellular
organisms with cell differentiation. "Fermi's paradox" doesn't seem too paradoxical. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence looks to be a
long shot.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2