Humans and ancient multicellular organisms share genes

Well-preserved fossil records have allowed scientists to link appearance and likely behavior

animals with genetic analysis of living beings.For their analysis, the researchers looked at four animals representing more than 40 recognized species that had been identified since the Ediacaran era, one of them called kimbirella. These creatures ranged in size from a few millimeters to almost a meter in length.

“None of the ancient multicellular organismsthere were no heads or skeletons. Many of them probably looked like three-dimensional bath mats on the seabed—like round discs sticking out. These animals were so strange and so different that it is difficult to classify them into modern categories of living organisms simply by looking at them.”

Mary Droser, Professor of Geology, UCR

The Kimberells were tear-shaped creatures with onea broad, rounded end and one narrow end, which probably scraped the seabed with their proboscis in search of food. In addition, they could walk using a "muscular leg" like modern snails. The study included flat oval Dickinsonia with a series of raised stripes on their surface and Tribrachidium, which spent their lives immobile at the bottom of the sea.

Were also analyzed icaria - animals,recently discovered by scientists. They were the size and shape of a grain of rice and represented the first Bilaterians, organisms with front and back parts and holes at both ends connected by intestines. Icarias had mouths, although they were not preserved in the fossil record, and they crawled through organic matter, eating them on the go.

All four animals were multicellular withcells of different types. Most had left and right symmetry, as well as a non-centralized nervous system and musculature. They also appear to have been able to repair damaged body parts through a process known as apoptosis. The same genes are key elements of the human immune system, which helps destroy virus-infected and precancerous cells.

These animals probably had geneticparts responsible for the operation of the system that replaces the head and the senses usually located there. However, the complexity of the interaction between these genes, which could cause such features, has not yet been achieved. The fact that we can say that these genes were at work in something that went extinct for half a billion years is fascinating for scientists.

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