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Down on the Mediterranean seafloor, scientists have found three kinds of small animal that don't need oxygen or even have mitochondria.
There are other anaerobic organisms out there, but none of them are animals, or multi-celled. None are even eukaryotes (Eukaryota is a very large grouping: most of the organisms you've heard of are eukaryotes). But down in a salty part of the Mediterranean Sea dead zone are these three species, clearly animals, with clear relations to other known animals, but missing the organelle that every other animal uses to get energy out of its food.
The mitochondria have been part of the eukaryote way of life/structure since before animals evolved. These three species, gen. et sp. nov., but within the small phylum Loricifera, have found a way to do without them and use a different metabolic pathway. Use it or lose it, I guess.
I'm surprised, but on another level, well, the universe continues to be stranger than imagined, and taxonomic categories are descriptive: they don't bind the universe.
There are other anaerobic organisms out there, but none of them are animals, or multi-celled. None are even eukaryotes (Eukaryota is a very large grouping: most of the organisms you've heard of are eukaryotes). But down in a salty part of the Mediterranean Sea dead zone are these three species, clearly animals, with clear relations to other known animals, but missing the organelle that every other animal uses to get energy out of its food.
The mitochondria have been part of the eukaryote way of life/structure since before animals evolved. These three species, gen. et sp. nov., but within the small phylum Loricifera, have found a way to do without them and use a different metabolic pathway. Use it or lose it, I guess.
I'm surprised, but on another level, well, the universe continues to be stranger than imagined, and taxonomic categories are descriptive: they don't bind the universe.
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I am astounded.
That is so awesome.