(ORDO NEWS) — When did the first multicellular creatures appear that can be called animals? Scientists themselves do not know the exact answer to this question, but recently they have come up with a curious hypothesis.
It is believed that for most of the history of the inhabited Earth, life was represented by pre-nuclear and single-celled nuclear organisms.
Then something happened and the multi-celled ones appeared. According to the geological record, this happened 572-602 million years ago. According to bioinformatics, another 250-286 million years earlier.
Because of such vague terms, scientists decided to study the issue more carefully.
They came to the conclusion that, oddly enough, the impetus for the development of life on Earth could be the period of cryogeny (635-720 million years ago), during which the planet was covered with ice.
So, for example, in Antarctica, communities of microbes, associated immobile filter feeders and active predators, are now flourishing. And all this despite the thick layer of ice.
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