A thorough review of ancient and recently discovered fossils revealed that an ancient species of bacterium photosynthetic, known as Langiella scourfieldii, is among the first to colonize dry land more than 400 million years ago.
This discovery places this being in the same context as the first plants to grow here and suggests that it also inhabited bodies of fresh water and hot springs.
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With the help of three-dimensional reconstructions, paleobiologist Christine Strullu-Derrien, from the Kingdom's National History Museum Kingdom, observed specific attributes of this microbe, especially its ability to branch — a typical aspect of cyanobacteria from the type Hapalosiphonacea.
The find was identified in the Rhynie Chert of Scotland, known to represent the oldest preserved terrestrial ecosystem in the world.
While many forms of life have been identified in these 407-million-year-old fossil deposits, the exact role played by cyanobacteria in that ecosystem remains an enigma.
Cyanobacteria, sometimes mistakenly called blue-green algae, have been vital to the formation of life on Earth.
About 2.4 billion years ago, these microorganisms played a crucial role in transforming the atmosphere land through the Great Oxidation Event, in which high amounts of oxygen were released into the waters and up in the air.
This atmospheric transformation, while beneficial to life forms that thrive in oxygen-rich environments such as humans, was disastrous for organisms that adapted to environments with low oxygen levels, extinguishing them.
(Image: disclosure)
Yet resilient cyanobacteria, believed to have originated in freshwater environments, have simply adapted and evolved, colonizing a wide range of habitats.
New studies on such microorganisms provide more information about how they conquered their space throughout evolution.
Researchers took a new look at the Langiella scourfieldii, the bacterium first discovered in 1959. Although early specimens were challenging to identify, recent discoveries have provided a more detailed analysis of the species.
Using super-resolution microscopy and 3D reconstruction techniques, scientists were able to analyze how the Langiella scourfieldii grew.
One of the most significant discoveries was evidence of a feature called “true branching.”
This phenomenon occurs when bacteria, growing linearly, duplicate and form a new line or branch. The characteristic suggests that the bacteria lived in humid lands near hot springs.
The research also benefited from other evidence, including molecular clock analyzes and the study of a billion-year-old branching specimen found in Africa.
All these data indicate that cyanobacteria, the group to which the Langiella scourfieldii, have a much more intricate evolutionary history than that reflected only in records fossils.