Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life Principles and mechan
The book integrates our understanding of the factors and processes underlying the evolution of multicellularity by providing several complementary perspectives (both theoretical and experimental) and using examples from various lineages in which multicell
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Volume 2
Series Editor J. Mark Cock CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CS 90074, F-29688 Roscoff cedex, France
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8684
Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo • Aurora M. Nedelcu Editors
Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life Principles and Mechanisms
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Editors Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) Barcelona Spain
Aurora M. Nedelcu Department of Biology University of New Brunswick Fredericton New Brunswick Canada
ISSN 1879-8012 ISSN 1879-8020 (electronic) Advances in Marine Genomics ISBN 978-94-017-9641-5 ISBN 978-94-017-9642-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9642-2 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014960241 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer Netherlands is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
As a young child growing up in Florida, I would set out on “treasure hunts” to look for fossils. The discovery of a Megalodon tooth or a mysterious fossilized bone would inspire thoughts about the lives of long-extinct creatures in a world before humans. And while my musings started with the fossils I could find and hold, with time I became curious about organisms and events from increasingly ancient times. How did tetrapods evolve? What about their ancestors, early aquatic vertebrates? How did developmental patterning evolve in the first bilaterians? And before that? What did the first animals look like? And from what did they evolve? How animals evolved from their single celled ancestors is one of the great mysteries in evolution and was likely set in motion by the origin of multicellularity. A remarkable process, one so striking that it is considered one of only eight “Major Transitions” in evolutionary history (Maynard Smith, J
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