Global InformationUrmetazoan information
The Urmetazoan is the hypothetical last common ancestor of all animals, or metazoans. It is universally accepted to be a multicellular heterotroph — with the novelties of a germline and oogamy, an extracellular matrix (ECM) and basement membrane, cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesions and signaling pathways, collagen IV and fibrillar collagen, different cell types (as well as expanded gene and protein families), spatial regulation and a complex developmental plan, and relegated unicellular stages.[1]
- ^ Ros-Rocher Núria, Pérez-Posada Alberto, Leger Michelle M. and Ruiz-Trillo Iñaki. 2021 The origin of animals: an ancestral reconstruction of the unicellular-to-multicellular transition Open Biol. 11:200359. 200359. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200359