The Planet’s Oneliest Bug! October 13, 2008
Posted by Onely in We like. . ..Tags: bacterium, bbc news, Desulforudis audaxviator
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This BBC News article informed me that the “planet’s loneliest bug” has been found almost two miles underground in South Africa, “living in complete isolation, total darkness, and 60C (140F) heat” and also without oxygen.
Technically he’s not a bug, but rather the bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator. “Audax viator” means “bold traveller” in Latin. Indeed, Desulforudis has gone where no bacterium has gone before, to become “the first known ecosystem within a single biological species”.
So I nominate the little “rod-shaped” guy as the Planet’s Oneliest Bug. (more…)