These include: 1) finding and describing new fossils in Precambrian strata, 2) using analytical tools to examine those fossils in order to determine taxonomic affinity, taphonomy, functional morphology, and paleoecology, 3) using modern analogs to determine phylogenetic relationships and physiology of
early eukaryotes and animals, and 4) combining multiple sources of data to create a timeline of biotic and abiotic events in the Precambrian.
Other theories hold that the prokaryotes that gave rise to
early eukaryotes were probably from the Domain Archaea, both because of several key characteristics and because DNA sequence comparison suggest that archaeans are more closely related to the eukaryotes than are eubacteria.
But no detectable intermediates between ancient, single - celled life and
early eukaryotes exist, making it nearly impossible to reconstruct the order of evolutionary events.
It has long been argued that mitochondria, the tiny organelles that handle the energy metabolism of eukaryotic cells, were once free - living bacteria that were enslaved by
an early eukaryote.
Not exact matches
Most attempts to date
early molecular phylogenetic trees used the emergence of
eukaryotes (around 2.0 billion years B.P.) as a calibration point.
The first option, called the big - bang or mitochondria -
early theory, predicts that a primitive archaeon engulfed a bacterium, an event that drove the development of
eukaryotes.
Two billion years ago, an
early cell swallowed an energy - producing microbe, giving birth to the mitochondria that are the hallmarks of all
eukaryotes.
Or consider the nuclear genes of the cells of advanced organisms (
eukaryotes): At some
early point in their evolution, these cells gained the help of the genes of a parasite or symbiont that became the mitochondrion, an organelle necessary for energy production.
Researchers had begun to wonder if these bizarre parasites and their relatives could be living relicts of an
early, pivotal time in
eukaryote history.
After comparing the sequence to those of a variety of other organisms, the researchers concluded that the Mimivirus lineage dates back some 3.3 billion years to the separation of
early life into three major divisions: archaea, bacteria, and the more complex
eukaryotes.
A green alga with throat - and stomach - like structures can swallow and digest bacteria when deprived of light, further bolstering Lynn Margulis's widely accepted idea that the origin of the plant - powering chloroplast was a fortuitous bout of indigestion.Termed «Endosymbiotic Theory», the idea is that
early nucleated cells called
eukaryotes ate bacteria that managed to escape digestion but also couldn't escape their captors.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140219133331.htm (DOI: 10.1038 / nature13068) and see oldest records from «The Geological Time Scale» http://tinyurl.com/qxdscdx or here Archean Molecular Fossils and the
Early Rise of
Eukaryotes