Lucky that Yana Eglit had sample tubes with her. During a spring hike in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the young evolutionary biologist discovered some places along the wayside that seemed promising to her in the search for microorganisms. So she just took some samples from the ground next to the well-known Bluff Wilderness Trail, filled them in plastic tubes, and later examined them at her workplace - a biological laboratory at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
After several weeks of studying the samples again and again with the microscope, it turned out that her scientific instinct had not deceived her. In the earth she discovered two rare microorganisms, so-called eukaryotic protists. The eukaryotes include all living things with a nucleus, ie animals, plants and fungi, but not bacteria. Eglit managed to isolate the tiny primal beings.
When she examined the two small organisms of the species Hemimastigophora in more detail, she found out: One was previously unknown. In the last hundred years, only about ten of these rare organisms have been discovered and described, according to a statement from the university.
Are you a superorganism?
Bacteria Quiz Are you a superorganism?
The newly discovered creature looks pretty scary under the microscope. The unicellular is about two hundredths of a millimeter long and moves forward with little hairs, so-called flagella, which protrude from the sides, rather uncoordinated. In addition, he feeds on tiny microbes, which he shoots with small harpoons, so-called Extrusomen, and pulls up to eat them.
After Eglit found out what her newly discovered mini-organism liked to eat, she bred the food and was able to domesticate the protozoa. Now other scientists can request and examine samples - a major step forward in the study of these organisms.
Of course, Eglit, who was researching her discovery with other scientists, also needed a name for the find: they christened the miniature creature Hemimastix kukwesjijk - after Kukwes, a greedy and hairy ogre from the mythology of the Mi'kmaq Indians living in the find region Life.
"So far there is nothing comparable"
Further findings on their discovery have yielded genetic analyzes that have not yet been presented on these microorganisms. To do this, the team used a technology that has not been around for a long time and allows genetic information to be obtained from a single cell. For the researchers wanted to know: How did Hemimastigophora develop, with whom are they related? After all, unicellular organisms were at the beginning of development on earth.
Now, Eglit and her colleagues experienced the second surprise: Obviously, microorganisms can not be assigned evolutionary biology to any of the known branches of development. "So far, there is nothing comparable that we know," the researchers write in their study, which has now appeared in the journal "Nature".
To investigate the origin of Hemimastigophora, one must go back very far in the evolution, so Alastair Simpson, co-author of the study. Possibly only a billion years ago - about 500 million years before the first animals appeared - a common ancestor.
In the future, the researchers want to do more genetic research - so far they have not yet sequenced the entire genome. "This is a whole new way to explore the evolution of complex cells and their origins," they write.