Almost all the genes involved (encoding so-called eukaryotic ‘signature proteins’) are not found in prokaryotes. And conversely, bacteria show practically no tendency to evolve any of these complex eukaryotic traits. There are no known evolutionary intermediates between the morphologically simple state of all prokaryotes and the disturbingly complex common ancestor of eukaryotes (Figure 6). All these attributes of complex life arose in a phylogenetic void, a black hole at the heart of biology.
