"Rare fossilized algae, discovered unexpectedly, fill in evolutionary gaps (Geological Society of America). Eukaryotes needed more time to evolve. Thankfully, Katie Maloney trekked into the Yukon to find algae fossils that she says evolved earlier than thought.
Maloney’s findings were published yesterday in Geology. She
and her collaborators found macroscopic fossils of multiple species of algae that thrived together on the seafloor about 950 million years ago, nestled between bacterial mounds in a shallow ocean. The discovery partly fills in the evolutionary gap between algae and more complex life, providing critical time constraints for eukaryotic evolution.
Q: Why did evolutionists need these eukaryotes to show up earlier?
“Algae became really important early on because of their role in oxygenation and biogeochemical cycles,” Maloney said. “So why does it take them so long to show up reliably in the fossil record? It’s definitely making us think more about animal ecosystems and whether or not we’re seeing the whole picture, or if we’re missing quite a bit from a lack of preservation.”