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Origins of the Metazoa

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Geobiology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Synonyms

Animals

Definition

Metazoans – heterotrophic, multicellular organisms that posses eukaryotic cells.

Heterotrophs – organisms that must ingest organic carbon to support growth, unlike plants that are autotrophic and can use light to photosynthesize organic compounds.

Evolutionary concepts

A major event in the time line of Earth’s history was the evolution of multicellular animal life, known scientifically as the Metazoa (Knoll and Carroll, 1999; Knoll et al., 2006; Budd, 2008; Love et al., 2009; Xiao and Laflamme, 2009). Metazoans posses eukaryotic cells which contain a distinct membrane bound nucleus, nuclear material (DNA) packaged into multiple linear chromosomes, membrane bound organelles, and modes of cellular division distinct from that of Bacteria and Archaea (Cooper and Hausman, 2009). Metazoans are primarily set apart from plants (also multicellular eukaryotes) in being heterotrophic, and in lacking a rigid cell wall (Campbell et al., 2008).

While all other forms of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Courant Research Centre Geobiology, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstr. 3, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Daniel J. Jackson

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  1. Daniel J. Jackson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Joachim Reitner  & Volker Thiel  & 

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Jackson, D.J. (2011). Origins of the Metazoa. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_136

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