Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” So goes the famous dictum of Sherlock Holmes, echoed by paleobotanist C. Kevin Boyce in summarizing ...

Animal life, emerging nearly 600 million years ago, showcases incredible diversity and unique traits. Unlike plants, animals ...

Understanding the origin of the building block of all animal and plant life may lead to more insights about life on Earth and ...

A eukaryote is any cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus. Eukaryotic cells form the foundation of complex, multicellular life, including apple trees, mushrooms, fish and humans.

All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a knack for compartmentalization. Recent discoveries are revealing how the first eukaryote got its start.

Compressing a type of single-celled microorganism makes it develop into a multicellular tissue-like ... along with bacteria and eukaryotes. The eukaryotes are organisms with cells containing ...

For a billion years, single-celled eukaryotes ruled the planet ... far as the Equator—a new creature burst into existence: the multicellular organism. Why did multicellularity arise?

A new hypothesis suggests that it could come down to how prokaryotic genomes respond to a small population size. Every organism visible to the naked eye is a mass of genetically identical cells. Each ...

The fossils, of what may be an ancient type of photosynthetic alga, are the oldest known multicellular eukaryotes, a group of organisms that contains a clearly defined nucleus full of packaged DNA.