GoKawiilResearch review maps how life repeatedly evolved multicellularity across 45 lineages
A body of recent research, including a 2023 phylogenetic survey and a 2025 study on archaea, documents that multicellularity has arisen independently at least 45 times across the tree of life, spanning bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The studies identify six distinct structural types of simple multicellularity and show that even archaea, previously thought incapable of complex tissue-like organization, can form clonal multicellular structures under mechanical compression. Together these findings are organized under a newer conceptual framework that treats multicellularity as a continuum of evolutionary stages rather than a single fixed trait.
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The consolidated evidence suggests multicellularity is a far more accessible evolutionary outcome than once assumed, since it emerged so many times independently across very different kinds of organisms. This reframing could help researchers identify common underlying mechanisms or selective pressures that repeatedly push single cells toward cooperative, multicellular life. The discovery of tissue-like growth in archaea in particular may prompt scientists to reconsider assumptions about which domains of life are capable of complex multicellular organization.
- At least 45 independent origins of simple multicellularity have been catalogued across the tree of life.
- Researchers now classify these origins into six distinct structural types.
- A 2025 study found mechanical compression can trigger tissue-like multicellular growth in an archaeon, challenging prior assumptions about archaeal biology.
Source: nature.com — Ozan Bozdag, 2026-10-07
Published there as: “Overcoming key challenges in the evolutionary transition to multicellularity”
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