The oldest multicellular eukaryotes
Ribbon-shaped fossils in China push complex multicellular life back to 1.63 billion years.
- When
- Known to
- ± 20 million years
- Era
- Paleoproterozoic, Proterozoic
Millimetre-scale, regularly segmented ribbons from the Chuanlinggou Formation in North China are interpreted as multicellular eukaryotes — probably photosynthetic algae. At about 1.63 billion years they are the oldest such fossils known, extending multicellularity well back into a period long characterised as evolutionarily static. They join a growing set of finds arguing that the Boring Billion was considerably less boring than its name suggests.