The next time you go wild swimming, whether in a lake, river or sea, you are probably sharing the water with one of your tiniest, yet closest relatives.
This near-family member is a microscopic, single-celled organism called a choanoflagellate. Scientists are still puzzled by how animals evolved from such simple beginnings. But a new paper describes the discovery of an important new clue.
Choanoflagellates, like most single celled organisms can only survive in water where they live much of their life as a single cell, no more complex than an amoeba.
