This raises an obvious question: did bacteria also help the single-celled ancestors of animals to band together? Did they contribute to the evolutionary foundation of every ant and elephant, every fish and finch? "That's my favourite hypothesis," says Rosie Alegado, the lead author on the new study. "Animals evolved in seas teaming with bacteria and have been passively exposed to bacterial chemical cues, intended and unintended." But she cautions that this is still an open question.
MORE: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/08/06/bacteria-transform-the-closest-living-relatives-of-animals-form-single-cells-into-colonies/
