The ancestors of all animals today are an unexpected species

Bacteria are the first signs of life that appear on the green planet. But bacteria are not animals! So where is the first animal to appear?

The living organism, the first form of life on Earth, is unicellular organisms - this probably many of us already know.

But bacteria are not animals. And if you only consider the first animal that appears on Earth, what animal do you think it is?

Jellyfish are the ancestors of all animals on Earth.

For centuries, scientists have been convinced that the oldest ancestors of animals are sponges - the simplest animals. However, a recent study has yielded different results: New jellyfish are the ancestors of all animals today.

Specifically, experts from Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison previously conducted research on genetic analysis of many different organisms, then sought to explain the relationships and put them into a genealogy system. .

But Professor Antonis Rokas from Vanderbilt University said: "This method is true to 95% of cases, but the remaining 5% is left open." So this time, they only focus on the genes shared by all animals.

"The trick is to analyze the gene sequence on different species, thereby identifying the link with other animals," Rokas said.

The generated signal originates from comb jellyfish and not sponges.

As a result, they found something called "phylogenetic signal" , and it originated from comb jelly , instead of sponge, which was mistaken for science.

Using this method, experts also found another interesting fact about crocodiles. Relatives are close to birds and turtles, with about 74% of the genes being shared.

However, research still has some problems, such as if life forms from one species, isn't evolution going too fast? This will need more research in the future to clarify.

The study was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.