/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15531742
>>15532020
That seems like a real bombshell of a discovery.
Is it a protist that evolved to downgrade itself to be more bacteria-like? Maybe it received some elements horizontally but instead of incorporating it as a mitochondria it interfaced it into its membranes? Perhaps it's a different lineage of Archean descendants that didn't go beyond one celled form?

Current understanding of eukaryotic evolution is through the horizontal transfer and basically assembling the cell from several arches if I remember correctly. How does this thing fit in?

Is it even real if it was only detected once in such a strange way?

Looks like something on the level of megalodon still existing, only microscopic so it's much more likely to be true.

Perhaps the same way the theory of spontaneous generation slowly went from fish to insects to protists to bacteria until being disproven our cryptid animals will go the same way and we'll be looking for some rare unbelievable bacteria that could answer some questions or provide the gene basis for some medical or industrial implementation.

Probably not since it's much harder to make the general populace interested in bacteria over a Sasquatch, but a good premise for a cheap sci fi book.