Large, multicellular life forms may have appeared on Earth one billion years earlier than was previously thought. Macroscopic multicellular life had been dated to around 600 million years ago, but new fossils suggest that centimetres-long multicellular organisms existed as early as 1.56 billion years ago.

What were the first multicellular organisms formed?

Single-celled organisms emerged from the primordial soup about 3.4 billion years ago. Almost immediately, some gathered in mats. But it was another 1.4 billion years before the first truly multicellular organism, called Grypania spiralis, appears in the fossil record.

What was the first multicellular organism on the planet?

Around 600 million years ago, the first multicellular organisms appeared on Earth: simple sponges. Five-hundred and 53-million years ago, the Cambrian Explosion occurred, when the ancestors of modern-day organisms began to rapidly evolve.