You, a rhodophyte, are swimming around quite happily, living on the sugars made by the blue-green algae you ate earlier, when a non-photosynthesising chromista eats you. Thankfully, you survive this trauma and live on, inside the chromista.
We're sure that this happened, because the chloroplasts in chromista have three or four membranes instead of two. This strongly suggests that a blue-green bacterium was 'eaten' by a rhodophyte, which was in turn 'eaten' by a chromista.
You get given chemicals, and convert those, via sunlight, to sugar for the Chromista. Marvellous.
Well, almost. The chlorophyll you provide helps the team a lot, but it could still be improved. For example, it doesn't work in deep water, where the sunlight is reduced.
Another of those little copy errors could make a different kind of chlorophyll that works better in the deep ocean and gives you the opportunity to colonise areas where nothing lives at the moment. But that will mean having less of the tried-and-tested chlorophyll that works so well near the surface.
Call me Nemo
I like paddling
Evolution starts with the Last Universal Ancestor.
You can find out what happened before evolution here.
You can also short-cut to Land plants, or Animals
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