Study Finds Oxygen-Using Ancestors, Solving Complex Life Mystery

Ancient 'Asgard' microbe may have used oxygen long before it was plentiful on Earth, offering new clue to origins of complex life

A new study suggests that ancient microbes once cast as oxygen haters may have actually learned to use the gas, offering a clue to how the first complex cells — and, eventually, all plants and animals

Discovery could explain the origin of complex life

A mystery about how the first complex life arose may have been solved. Multicellular creatures — all animals, fungi, and plants — are hybrids. Some time around 2 billion years ago, some ancient bacteria entered into other single-celled organisms called Asgard archaea, becoming what are now mitochondria, which generate energy in our cells. But the bacteria tended to live in oxygen-rich environments, while the Asgards, believed to be our ancestors…

A break in a longstanding mystery about origin of complex life

According to a new study in Nature, some Asgard archaea use, or at least tolerate oxygen.

Solving a longstanding mystery about complex life's origin—oxygen-tolerant Asgard archaea may explain eukaryotes' rise

The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the arrival of all complex life on Earth has had an unsolved mystery at its heart. According to the theory, all plants, animals and fungi, known collectively as eukaryotes, are thought to have evolved after two very different types of microbes came together. The problem was in figuring out how the two were in such close proximity in the first place, given that one of the microbes requires oxyge…

Earth’s early oceans hid the secret rise of complex life

Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features emerged in ancient anoxic oceans long before oxygen became a major part of Earth’s atmosphere. Their results indicate that early complexity developed slowly over an unexpectedly long timescale.

Oxygen May Have Been Key to Sparking the Rise of Complex Life

Learn how oxygen’s early rise could have given complex life the energy boost it needed to evolve.