Scientists have long pondered how and when the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes occurred. A collaborative research team from Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo may have provided some answers after discovering new types of microfossils dating 1.9 billion years.

Details of their findings were published in the journal Precambrian Research on August 19, 2022.

The Gunflint Formation traverses the northern part of Minnesota into Ontario, along the northwestern shores of Lake Superior. The first bacterial microfossils were discovered there in 1954, with Gunflint microfossils now recognized as a “benchmark” in the field of life evolution.

Enigmas — August 2022

Evolution has long been thought to be random, however, a recent study suggests differently.

Evolution has long been thought of as a relatively random process, with species’ features being formed by random mutations and environmental factors and thus largely unpredictable.

But an international team of scientists headed by researchers from Yale University and Columbia University discovered that a specific plant lineage independently developed three similar leaf types repeatedly in mountainous places scattered across the Neotropics.