A team of researchers has discovered a tentacled microbe on the coast of Japan, and experts believe that this creature might be most probably the missing link between ancient bacteria, and cells that led to the evolution of humans. Scientists discovered this microbial creature 1.5 miles below the surface of the ocean, and its biology was later studies in a laboratory.
A link between unicellular and multi-cellular organisms?
Scientists at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology revealed that this microbe named Prometheoarchaeum syntrophicum, is at a stage between simple single-celled organism like bacteria and the complex cells that led to the formation of animals and plants.
After making this discovery, scientists revealed that this microbe is a spherical cell with a diameter of roughly 500 nanometers, and it has a branch of tentacle-like appendages.
The microbe is a part of a group called archaea, which are simple single-celled organisms that lack nuclei. Scientists revealed that studying more about these microbes helped to understand how simple bacteria-like cells eventually resulted in the formation of more complex cells called eukaryotes. The team revealed that appendages of this microbe captured a passing bacteria, and thus a more complex creature was formed.
The mystery of life on earth
As per space scientists, the solar system including the earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago, and in this blue planet, marine microbes appeared roughly 4 billion years ago. Despite various theories, it still remains unclear how seeds of life were sowed on earth.
A few days back, a study led by Victor Rivilla, a researcher at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, part of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics suggested that seeds of life were actually sowed by meteorites that hit the earth from deep space. Scientists who took part in this study made this conclusion after detecting the presence of phosphorus, a vital ingredient to form life in meteorites.
