New Discovery Is Forcing Scientists to Rethink This Theory

  • Publish date: Wednesday، 11 February 2026 Reading time: 1 min read

Chromosome Organization Provides Stronger Evidence Than Gene Sequences

Comb Jellies Are Now the Oldest Living Animal Branch

Complex Traits Evolved Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

It Challenges the Assumption That Simplicity Equals Antiquity

Nervous Systems and Muscles May Have Evolved Earlier

New Genomic Tools Are Rewriting the Deepest Branches of Life

Sponges Are No Longer the Most Basal Animals

The Animal Tree of Life Has Been Reorganized at Its Root

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Over 150 years ago researchers started seeing sponges as the first animals to evolve from the root of the animal tree. That idea stood strong because they look so basic - no tissues, no organs, nothing like modern creatures. Yet by the end of 2025 something shifted: work led by an global network of scientists appeared in Nature questioning it all. A fresh method, based on detailed chromosome scans across many living kinds, reveals strong proof that comb jelly animals (ctenophores), rather than sponges, split off first among creatures.
 

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