Possible ancestor of sponges found

An exquisitely preserved 600-million-year-old fossil from China has cell types and a shape resembling sponges, thought to be among the first multicellular animals to evolve.

Early sponge evolution: A review and phylogenetic framework - ScienceDirect

Paleontology, Page 30 of 61

Paleontology, Page 30 of 61

What did the earliest animals look like?

Possible ancestor of sponges found

Frontiers Global patterns in symbiont selection and transmission strategies in sponges

Early animal evolution: a morphologist's view

What did the earliest animals look like?

PPT - Sponges PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:5489433

Origin of animal multicellularity: precursors, causes, consequences—the choanoflagellate/sponge transition, neurogenesis and the Cambrian explosion

890-million-year-old sponges may be oldest animal fossils