Complex Multicellularity & Vertebrate Emergence

Complex Multicellularity & Vertebrate Emergence explores one of evolution's greatest transitions: the emergence of a developmental mode capable of building increasingly complex organisms. The first pulse documents the rise of developmentally complex multicellularity, a developmental mode that became characteristic of animals, in which cells migrate to specific locations to assemble a body plan. The second pulse follows the emergence of the vertebrate Bauplan, characterized by directed locomotion, neural centralization, and a dynamic head–body organization. Through the lens of logarithmic evolutionary time, this volume uncovers the deep continuity linking the first developmentally complex multicellular organisms to the earliest vertebrate body plan—which would over millions of years lead to the human form.