Unit News

Brown mushrooms with paler stems on the forest floor amid green moss.

Research Update

Gene swapping helped build the planet's decomposers

A new study reveals that horizontal gene transfer contributed to the repeated evolution of fungi-like, absorption-feeding life across eukaryotes.

Graphic illustration of primitive life in the primordial soup, showing one cell absorbing another.

Research Update

Complex life developed earlier than previously thought

New evidence-based evolutionary model provides access to the beginning of complex life with unprecedented accuracy.

04 December 2025

A photo of three red capped, white stem mushrooms sitting on a forest floor carpeted in brown fallen leaves and soft green moss. Credit: Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/photos/mushrooms-moss-disc-fungus-fungus-8644983/)

Research Update

Fungi set the stage for life on land hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought

From fossils and rare genetic ‘gene-swap’ clues, researchers reconstruct fungi’s deep timeline and reveal how they helped shape early Earth ecosystems.

02 October 2025

Molecular clock analysis Szollosi Unit Header Image

Research Update

Molecular clock analysis shows bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis

Scientists use the Great Oxidation Event and how organisms adapted to it to map bacterial evolution.