  Cytasters have been underestimated in terms of their potential relevance to
embryonic development and evolution. From the perspective discussed herein,
structures such as the multiciliated cells of comb rows and balancers
supporting mineralized statoliths and macrocilia in Beroe ovata point to a past
event of multiflagellate fusion in the origin of metazoans. These structures,
which are unique in evolutionary history, indicate that early animals handled
basal bodies and their duplication in a manner consistent with a "developmental
program" originated in the Ctenophora. Furthermore, the fact that centrosome
amplification leads to spontaneous tumorigenesis suggests that the centrosome
regulation process was co-opted into a neoplastic functional module.
Multicilia, cilia, and flagella are deeply rooted in the evolution of animals
and Neoplasia. The fusion of several flagellated microgametes into a cell with
a subsequent phase of zygotic (haplontic) meiosis might have been at the origin
of both animal evolution and the neoplastic process. In the Ediacaran ocean, we
also encounter evolutionary links between the Warburg effect and Neoplasia.
