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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton
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A trophic framework for animal origins.

D B Mills1, D E Canfield1

  • 1Department of Biology, Nordic Center for Earth Evolution, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

Geobiology
|October 1, 2016
PubMed
Summary

The earliest multicellular animals, or metazoans, likely ate microbes and dissolved organic matter. Their feeding habits as ecosystem engineers helped create conditions for diverse animal life and bridged microbial food webs to larger ecosystems.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecology
  • Paleontology

Background:

  • Metazoans are unique complex multicellular eukaryotes capable of phagocytosis.
  • The feeding mode and bodyplan of the last common metazoan ancestor are still debated.
  • Early metazoans likely consumed picoplankton and dissolved organic matter (DOM).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the ecological role of early metazoans.
  • To understand how early metazoans influenced food web evolution.
  • To explore the transition from microbial to macroscopic food webs.

Main Methods:

  • Ecological modeling
  • Phylogenetic analysis
  • Fossil record interpretation

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Main Results:

  • Early metazoans acted as ecosystem engineers by consuming picoplankton and processing DOM.
  • Metazoan feeding modulated nutrient availability and created niches for other metazoans.
  • Early phagocytosis likely spurred the evolution of larger eukaryotic forms.

Conclusions:

  • The feeding strategies of early metazoans were crucial for the evolution of complex ecosystems.
  • Metazoans facilitated the transition from microbial-dominated Proterozoic food webs to Phanerozoic macroscopic food webs.
  • Early metazoan feeding behavior fundamentally shaped biosphere evolution.