NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Choanoflagellates reveal the cellular foundations of animal origins. Because choanoflagellates and animals are each other’s closest relatives, a fundamental question is whether shared cellular features – such as the collar complex – were already present in their last common ancestor, the “Urchoanozoan” (Figure 1).

Detailed explanation-2: -Choanoflagellates are among the closest living single-celled relatives of metazoans. This relationship means that choanoflagellates are to metazoans-all animals, from sponges to flatworms to chordates-what chimpanzees are to humans.

Detailed explanation-3: -Choanocytes look and act remarkably like choanoflagellates, so much so that some scientists posited in the 1980s and ‘90s that choanoflagellates might be animals that evolved from sponges and then simplified down to one cell.

Detailed explanation-4: -Choanoflagellates are unicellular, free-living, eukaryotic protists that form colonies. They are considered to be the closest living relatives of the animals. They are significant in animal evolution since they are considered to be amongst the precursors of the animals who shared a common ancestor.