Bacteria disappear at rates much higher than those expected by scientists | Science | New



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  Bacteria

LOSS: New research shows that bacteria disappear at higher rates (1965: 00003) Between 45,000 and 95,000 types of bacteria have disappeared over the last few million years. years.

However, despite the high numbers, bacteria remain resistant to mass extinctions that have hit larger life forms such as dinosaurs, researchers have found.

Scientists used revolutionary techniques to reveal between 1.4 and 1.9 million bacterial lines.

They studied the mathematical structures found in DNA to pit the first evolutionary tree for bacteria – and reveal the extinction rate.

For more than 3.5Gyr (3.5 billion years), the geochemical composition of our planet has been shaped by the evolution and diversification of bacteria

Dr. Stilianos Louca

Postdoctoral Researcher Leader Dr. Stilianos Louca According to the University of British Columbia, studying how bacteria can evolve and die can reveal the "new ways" of surviving simple organisms [19659003] He explains, "For more than 3.5Gyr (3.5 billion years), the geochemical composition of our planet has" Most importantly, the great event of oxygenation was caused by cyanobacteria there about 2.35 years ago and significantly altered the Earth's surface environments and the subsequent evolution of life. "

"Despite the predominant role He adds:" Bacteria rarely fossilize, so we know very little about the evolution of the microbial landscape over time.

"Sequencing and maths helped us to fill the genealogical tree of bacteria, to map how they diversified over time and to discover their extinctions.

" While modern bacteria Diversity is undoubtedly high, it's only a tiny cliche of the diversity that evolution has generated over the Earth's history. "

Despite frequent and regular extinction of individual species, the bacteria have diversified exponentially without interruption, avoiding the sudden and planetary mass extinctions that have occurred periodically in plants and animals.

Researchers suspect competition between bacterial species to drive high rate of microbial extinctions, leaving them less prone to sudden extinction.

Past speciation, which is the formation of new species, and the Extinction events leave a complex trace in phylogenies – the mathematical structures that code the evolutionary kinship between existing bacterial species.

reveal how bacteria have developed and evolved.