The link between simple and complex life forms starts to take consistent shape with new discoveries made by scientists under the deep waters of the ocean. This sheds light on how the evolution of species has happened, from single-celled organisms to more complex structures of life, like animals and humans.
Lokiarchaeota is the missing link in the chain of evolutionary life, the one that ties the single celled organisms to the more complex and evolved ones. Lokiarchaeota as described in the Journal of Nature, are single celled microbes with an impressive set of features. They are strongly connected to eukaryotes, the group that consists of all complex cellular life on earth. Plants, animals, fungi and humans are all grouped under the name of eukaryotes.
Lokiarchaeota is a single-celled critter with a strange set of traits. It is defined as prokaryote but it also contains evolutionary features, strongly tied by eukaryotes, the most complex life forms.
Eukaryotes consist of multiple cells in which the genetic material is DNA in the form of chromosomes contained in distinct nucleus. A prokaryote, for a change, is a single celled organism without a single nucleus consisting of a membrane. It doesn’t have specialized organelles, including bacteria and cyanobacteria.
Scientists believed that the two main life forms on earth are completely distinct, as no proof of evidence revealed any kind of connection. Loki is here to contradict that, as its structure bears some revealing features. It has the dynamic protein cytoskeleton and the ability to engulf and consume other cells. This could have allowed Loki to capture the ancestor of mitochondria.
This breakthrough discovery creates a tight link between all life forms and opens important paths of discovery on the exact way in which life has evolved. Step by step, proof of evolution reveals itself in its entire splendor, with more to be revealed with the help of new findings.
The eukaryote’s specific features are present in this old ancestor. Lokiarchaeota has a rich genomic starter kit that supports its increase in cellular complexity, characteristic of all eukaryotes. This is also a starting point for new research, as scientists concluded that proofs of evolutionary life lack in evidence due to poor sampling of cellular diversity.
It is great that new discoveries in the scientific field help us see how we got from here to there, how a single cell evolved in such a way to multiply and create complex DNA structures, with features allowing complex living structures to arise. All forms of biological answers shed light on more complex problems, offering paths for further evolution and new discoveries.
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