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Totally cool. The headline can act as the tl;dr summary, but basically they found 3 different species in the same family in this weird corner of the Mediterrane
by pmichaud 17y ago
Totally cool. The headline can act as the tl;dr summary, but basically they found 3 different species in the same family in this weird corner of the Mediterranean. They don't need any oxygen because they have something other than mitochondria in their cells to produce energy.
- nopassrecover 17y agoGiven their unusual properties I wonder how likely they are to be seeded from 'alien' matter rather than derivatives of known Earth lifeforms.
- hugh3 17y agoVery unlikely indeed. They are new species but have been classified into previously-known taxonomic groups. They're related to other, perfectly prosaic Earthly animals.
- nopassrecover 17y agoThanks
- someperson 17y agoPlease don't down mod comments when they aren't trolling. The parent comment is at -2 points at the time of writing, which is very unfair. Just argue the comment and leave it at that.
- nopassrecover 17y agoAppreciated
- stavrianos 17y agogiven the similarities in the environments we and they evolved in, (ie Earth) I think it's likely that you have wildly more in common with these lifeforms than with any you'd find elsewhere.
- etal 17y agoThe organelles they use for anaerobic respiration are found in other unicellular eukaryotes (single-celled organisms that aren't bacteria, like some fungal pathogens). The interesting thing here is that they're multicellular, not that their cellular biochemistry is unique.
- nopassrecover 17y agoThanks, my biology is weak so there's a couple of key terms for me to check up here!
- Evgeny 17y agoSo what is it that they have in place of mitochondiria? A fascinating book "Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life" (http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sex-Suicide-Mitochondria-Meaning/dp/0199205647 http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sex-Suicide-Mitochondria-Meaning...) suggested that the multicellullar organisms on Earth evolved only once, when the symbiotic relationship between two types of bacteria was formed - one of them became "host", and the other became mitochondria and specialized for energy production. The book suggests that the conditions for this to happen were very unusual and are unlikely to ever happen again. It does even suggest that this may mean that life in the Universe, more complicated that single-cell organisms, is very unlikely to evolve. If eukaryotes evolved more than once, then there's some more hope for extraterrestrial life I suppose ...
- eru 17y ago> If eukaryotes evolved more than once, then there's some more hope for extraterrestrial life I suppose ... Wouldn't you call extraterrestrial bacteria `life'?
- netcan 17y agoWell, most people think multicellular when they get excited about life because multicellular is how earth life gets complex. To that end eliminating flukes that happen only once is important.
- eru 17y agoOK. I am not that discriminating. (Actually, Archae and Bacteria are much more interesting too me.)
- etal 17y agoThey use hydrogenosomes, or something similar, instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogenosome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogenosome It looks like the metabolic reaction is somewhat similar to the aerobic one used by mitochondria, but uses hydrogen ions instead of oxygen molecules. Hydrogenosomes may or may not be evolutionarily related to mitochondria. Here's the original journal article (open access): http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/30/abstract http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/30/abstract