How does multicellularity evolve? Scientists who study a family of green algae that includes unicellular Chlamydomonas and multicellular Volvox are beginning to find answers to this question.
Infographic: The Evolution of Volvox View full size JPG | PDF Lucy Reading-Ikkanda (diagrams and cells); SOURCE: David L. Kirk The volvocine algae are a model system for studying the evolution of ...
(A) Young Volvox adult, with about 2,000 small somatic cells in a monolayer at the surface, and nineteen large gonidia embedded in the extracellular matrix (ECM), just under the somatic cell layer.