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Scientists Have Found the First Branch on the Tree of Life

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Scientists discovered that the first animal that left our collective common ancestors was the first.
For years, the debate was angry about whether the first separation was a sea sponge or the comb jelly.
Thanks to new chromosomal analysis techniques, we finally have an answer.

Sharing all animals in the world common ancestor. From people to slimy insects, follow the history of any creature and eventually you will be able to follow all the branches in the animal tree of life to the body.

However, this body had to branch at some point, or we would not have all today’s animals. And this first division was a bit difficult for scientists, as it took place about 600 million years ago.

Still, we know a few things. So we know that the first division results in the birth of two living things – the ancestor of almost all animals and the ancestor’s “sister”. This sister is the ancestor of only one group of today animal.

For decades, scientists have argued which group of animals have literally followed the descendants of all other animals to their “sister”. There have been two contestants for a long time –Sea sponges and comb jelly. And now, thanks to new methods that provide researchers to analyze these creatures chromosomesScientists finally believe they have the answer.

The key to this technique was not only the genes of each animal, but to the place where these genes are in the chromosomes of the creatures. As a creature developingChromosomes will reorganize and genes will move over time. But when they move, it is almost impossible for them to return to their original positions.

So, in essence, which animal shows the least re -blockage genes Chromosomes should have existed first. As we know, we have only two options for this first division – sponges or comb jellies – the minimum mixing of this option is his sister. The first developed first division is equal.

To understand this, the team compared the settlements of certain gene groups in the sponge and comb jellies to their settlements in non -single -celled relatives of the same groups. These single -celled relatives would be closely related to “baggage” organismAnd he would protect the evidence of what the original genome would look like. The closer an organism to this genome, the less changes it changes and the more likely it is to become a sister.

In both analysis and comb jells, the researchers found 14 gene groups found in separate chromosomes. However, in the sponges, researchers showed that these 14 groups were reorganized to 7 groups and left the original. genome Later from the comb gels.

This means we have a winner! The sister of all other animals, the first branched and the most genetically isolated animal… Drum… Tarak jelly!

Scientists have long been excited to investigate what this new knowledge can say about the history of animal evolution and the mechanisms that give us strength to this evolution, beyond serving as the answer to a long biological question. The search for an answer continues, but at least now there is one more in our pockets.

Photo Loan: Hearst

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