You are looking at one of oldest microbes on earth! A single-celled ancient lineage of Archaea, a domain of life similar to bacteria. Took 12 years of lab work to grow them! Shows life’s greatest leaps toward complexity, from bacteria-like organisms to complicated eukaryotes. 
Link to the Nature paper nature.com/articles/s4158…
“On the basis of the available data obtained from cultivation and genomics, and reasoned interpretations of the existing literature, we propose a hypothetical model for eukaryogenesis, termed the entangle–engulf–endogenize”
“On the basis of the available data obtained from cultivation and genomics, and reasoned interpretations of the existing literature, we propose a hypothetical model for eukaryogenesis, termed the entangle–engulf–endogenize”
An unusual meal kicked off the evolution of complicated cell2B years ago. An ancient archaean gobbled up a bacterium sparked a symbiotic relationship (endosymbiosis), evolving into mitochondria, the energy-producing cellular structures that fueled the rise of complex life.
The name, Prometheoarchaeum syntrophicum, is after the Greek god Prometheus who, the myths say, introduced fire to humanity. Much remains to be learned, what it can tell us about our origins. In the meantime, Imachi is still sifting through the microbes. sciencenews.org/article/microb…
