There have been bacteria on Earth ever since life originated about 3.8 billion years ago.
Bacteria are small single-celled organisms that you find where there is the possibility of life, in soil, air, in hot springs, on and in other organisms.
As one can read in Large Norwegian encyclopedia, the size of bacteria varies from 0.2 to 10 micrometers. In other words, they are so small that you need a microscope to spot them.
But that was until a group of scientists made a discovery that even they have a hard time grasping.
High as Mount Everest
The bacterium, which has been given the Latin name Thiomargarita magnifica, looks like long, white threads that whip around it. With an average length of one centimeter, they are so large that they can be seen with the naked eye.
BACTERIA FINDINGS: The new bacterium was discovered by Olivier Gros, professor of marine biology at the Université des Antilles in Guadeloupe. Photo: AP / NTB
sea view
– The bacterium grows larger than what is theoretically possible, Jean-Marie Volland said when the double-sense discovery was presented at a press conference this week.
If you compare with other known bacterial species, Thiomargarita magnifica is about 50 times as large.
– It is as if we humans were to meet another human being who was as high as Mount Everest, said Volland who is a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on a daily basis.
The finding is described in a study published in the scientific journal Science.
Alarms about horror gonorrhea
Found in mangrove swamp
It was Olivier Gros, a professor of marine biology at the Université des Antilles, who made the discovery of leaves picked from the bottom of a mangrove swamp in Guadeloupe, Caribbean.
THE FOUNDATION: It was in such a mangrove swamp in Guadeloupe that the giant bacterium was discovered. Photo: AP / NTB
sea view
– When I saw them, I thought: “Strange”, Gros said during the press conference.
The laboratory first performed microscopic analyzes to determine that the threads were single cells. However, closer examination revealed that the bacterium had a strange internal structure.
In most bacteria, DNA flows freely inside the cell. In Thiomargarita magnifica, DNA appears to be organized inside membrane-bound spaces throughout the cell.
– This is very unexpected for a bacterium, says Volland.
Record finds in the river
Possible defense mechanism
So far, scientists can not answer how in the world the otherwise microscopic bacteria have grown to be as big as eyelashes.
One theory is that it has grown so large to avoid being hunted by other microorganisms.
“If you grow to be hundreds or thousands of times larger than the predator, you can not be consumed by the predator,” said Volland.
According to The Guardian, the bacterium has not been found anywhere else so far. When the researchers returned to the site, Thiomargarita magnifica was gone.
Olivier Gos and Jean-Marie Volland conclude their report with the fact that larger and more complex bacteria are everywhere, but that they are extremely difficult to spot.
It’s something to think about, isn’t it?
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