Bicellum brasieri
Bicellum brasieri is a fossil holozoan. It is one billion years old and could be the oldest example of complex multicellularity in the evolutionary lineage leading to the animals, and has been described as bridging "the gap between the very first living creatures — single-celled organisms — and more complex multicellular life." It was discovered in 2021, and is posthumously named after the late Martin Brasier, a paleontologist who was a co-author of the paper that first described it.
Fossil site
Bicellum was found in sediments from the Diabaig Formation in Loch Torridon, Scotland. The Diabaig Formation, considered to represent an ancient lake deposit, was already known to preserve the first non-marine eukaryotes.
References
- ^ a b Strother, Paul K.; Brasier, Martin D.; Wacey, David; Timpe, Leslie; Saunders, Martin; Wellman, Charles H. (April 2021). "A possible billion-year-old holozoan with differentiated multicellularity". Current Biology. 31 (12): 2658–2665.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.051. PMID 33852871.
- ^ "Finding the 'missing link'". BC News. Boston College. June 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ "Billion-year-old fossil found preserved in Torridon rocks". BBC News. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ Weisberg, Mindy (2021-05-06). "Fossil 'balls' are 1 billion years old and could be Earth's oldest known multicellular life". livescience.com. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ "Billion-Year-Old Scottish Fossil Could Be The Oldest Proto-Animal Ever Found". IFLScience. 30 April 2021.
- ^ Stewart, A. D. (2002). The Later Proterozoic Torridonian Rocks of Scotland: their Sedimentology, Geochemistry and Origin. London: the Geological Society. pp. 1–136. ISBN 1-86239-103-3.
- ^ Strother, Paul K.; Battison, Leila; Brasier, Martin D.; Wellman, Charles H. (May 2011). "Earth's earliest non-marine eukaryotes". Nature. 473 (7348): 505–509. Bibcode:2011Natur.473..505S. doi:10.1038/nature09943. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 21490597. S2CID 4418860.
