Postdoc Kimberly Chen has published a lay summary of our recent Scientific Reports paper, in which we showed that predation can drive the evolution of multicellularity in the green alga Chlamydomonas:
Multicellular life is one of the most astonishing wonders on Earth, but why and how does it arise in the first place, and at what cost? To help answer these questions, we exposed single-celled algae to predators and watched them evolve into multicellular life. Within a year, they had formed groups of cells to avoid being eaten – but at a price.
Chen, I-C. K. & M. D. Herron. 2019. Predators drive the evolution of multicellularity. The Science Breaker 257. doi: 10.25250/thescbr.brk257