A recent discovery by a University of Florida geologist may lend
support to the theory that one of the defining moments of
evolution may not have occurred as currently thought. While
studying the ancient microcontinents that make up the geography
of central Kazakhstan in Asia, geological sciences professor Joe
Meert and colleagues uncovered evidence that multi-cellular
organisms may have evolved 100 million years earlier than
previously thought, well before the Cambrian Era. His findings
are published online today in the journal Gondwana Research. The
Cambrian era is known for an explosion of multi-cellular life,
including the first hard-shelled organisms. Most modern species
can trace their evolution back to this event, which is unique in
the evolutionary record. Prior to the Cambrian era, the fossil
record becomes more cryptic, as the soft-shelled organisms of
the era leave relatively few fossils. The prevailing theory is
that multi-cellular life developed just after a series of
glacial episodes 750 to 653