Sex is invented
A red alga in the Canadian Arctic becomes the first organism known to reproduce sexually.
- When
- Known to
- ± 20 million years
- Era
- Mesoproterozoic, Proterozoic
Bangiomorpha pubescens, from rocks dated to 1,047 million years ago, is preserved well enough to show differentiated spores and holdfasts — the signature of a sexual life cycle. It is simultaneously the oldest known sexually reproducing organism, the oldest complex multicellular one with differentiated cell types, and the oldest identifiable red alga. Sexual recombination shuffles genes between individuals, and it is the engine behind almost all subsequent evolutionary change.