[5][9] It has been suggested that switching to the sexual pathway is the key to surviving environmental stresses that include heat and drought.

[10] Consistent with this idea, the induction of sex involves a signal transduction pathway that is also induced in Volvox by wounding.

Immediately after, the cell layer is inside out compared with the adult configuration—the apical ends of the embryo protoplasts from which flagella are formed, are oriented toward the interior of the plakea.

The mechanism of inversion has been investigated extensively at the cellular and molecular levels using the model species, Volvox carteri.

[7] According to Charles Joseph Chamberlain,[13] "The most favorable place to look for it is in the deeper ponds, lagoons, and ditches which receive an abundance of rain water.

Dr. Nieuwland reports that Pandorina, Eudorina and Gonium are commonly found as constituents of the green scum on wallows in fields where pigs are kept.

[18][19] Ancestors of Volvox transitioned from single cells that initially resembled Chlamydomonas to form multicellular colonies at least 200 million years ago, during the Triassic period.

An estimate using DNA sequences from about 45 different species of volvocine green algae, including Volvox, suggests that the transition from single cells to undifferentiated multicellular colonies took about 35 million years.