Early Life: Billion Years Earlier Than Thought

The new, proposed model for the evolution of complex life, or eukaryogenesis, dubbed CALM (Complex Archaeon, Late Mitochondrion). Built on hundreds of genetic sequences across biological systems and the fossil record, this new evidence-based framework nuances our understanding of the differentiation of eukaryotes from prokaryotes and places the development of mitochondria significantly later than other internal structures, contrary to current models of evolution.