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The transition took place over the course of 50 weeks and was caused simply by the introduction of a predator to the environment. Time-lapse videos are available in the supplementary info.
The transition from unicellular to multicellular life was one of a few major events in the history of life that created new opportunities for more complex biological systems to evolve. Predation is hypothesized as one selective pressure that may have driven the evolution of multicellularity. Here we show that de novo origins of simple multicellularity can evolve in response to predation. We subjected outcrossed populations of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to selection by the filter-feeding predator Paramecium tetraurelia. Two of five experimental populations evolved multicellular structures not observed in unselected control populations within ~750 asexual generations.
De novo origins of multicellularity in response to predation
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday February 24 2019, @04:59PM
That is a good point.
Another thing to consider, especially in the context of the evolution of early life, is that any sort of sophisticated multicellularism tends to dramatically slow down the reproduction cycle, which simultaneously slows down the rate of evolution. So some multicelluar organism evolves, might even prosper for a while, but its internal cell processes are still primitive, and are evolving much more slowly than in the unicellular life. Which means that within a relatively short time the primitive multicellular life is competing against far more efficient and resilient unicellular life.
It seems to me that multicellular life just wouldn't become a long-term viable proposition until the evolution of single-cellular metabolic processes and other basic "cellular biotechnologies" had slowed down, globally, to the point that the cellular technologies of slower-evolving multi-cellular organisms would continue to remain "good enough" over the long term.
Once multicellular organisms were able to evolve a big enough advantage before they began to become "obsolete" at the cellular level, the field would be ripe for mutualism to evolve as fast-evolving "parasites" evolved to "farm" some of the excess calories instead, while protecting us from more aggressive invaders.