Around 1.7 billion years ago, eukaryotes—the building blocks of complex life—first appeared on Earth, and now scientists have ...

Eukaryotes—the building blocks of complex life—appeared on Earth 1.7 billion years ago, and now scientists have solved a longstanding riddle about their origin.

In a new study, published in Cell, researchers describe a newfound mechanism for creating proteins in a giant DNA virus, comparable to a mechanism in eukaryotic cells. The finding challenges the dogma ...

In the oceans and on land, scientists are discovering rare, transitional organisms that bridge the gap between Earth’s simplest cells and today’s complex ones.

Millions of years ago, the Earth was a barren, steamy ball over half a billion years ago, full of volcanic ash, vast oceans churning with chemical sou.

Complex cells are thought to be the result of a union between two ancient microorganisms, but scientists have long been ...

A giant virus discovered in Japan is adding fuel to the provocative idea that viruses helped create complex life. Named ushikuvirus, it infects amoebae and shows unique traits that connect different ...

Ancient microbes tied to our earliest ancestors could use oxygen, reshaping ideas about how complex life began on Earth.

Genetics tools have advanced significantly in recent decades, and have allowed scientist to sequence all of the genetic ...

For decades, scientists have believed that complex life began when two very different microbes joined forces, eventually ...

This important study implicates that changes in cell regulation may contribute to the evolution of multicellularity. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous methods used ...

The story of how life began on Earth grows even more intriguing when viruses enter the picture. These microscopic particles are thought to have ...