The origins of complex, nucleated cellular life – everything from amoebas to humans – may date back a lot further in Earth's history than we thought.
A new study tracing the earliest steps toward complex life suggests that this transformation from simpler ancestors began almost 3 billion years ago – long before our planet had the oxygen levels needed to support a thriving eukaryotic biosphere.
That's almost a billion years earlier than some estimates place the rise of complex cells, pointing to a surprisingly long, drawn-out evolutionary buildup rather than a rapid leap in complexity.
Relat