Science
Is our most distant animal relative a sponge or a comb jelly? Our study provides an answer – The Conversation UK
Over the past ten years, scientists have argued about what the earliest animal really was.
The theory of evolution shows that all of life stems from a single root and that we are related, more or less distantly, to every other living thing on Earth. Our closest ancestors, as Charles Darwin recognised, are to be found among the great apes. But beyond this, confusion over the branching pattern of the tree of life means that things become less clear.
We know that life evolved from a common universal ancestor that gave rise to bacteria, archaea (other types of single-celled microorganisms)…
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