Halifax researchers say microbe reveals ‘major new branch’ of evolutionary tree
HALIFAX — A dirt sample taken from a wilderness area outside Halifax has led scientists at Dalhousie University to discover a new branch on the evolutionary tree of life.
It turns out the small dirt scrape contained one-celled microbial organisms that no one even knew existed, and the findings are included in a paper published Wednesday in the science journal Nature.
Alastair Simpson, a professor in Dalhousie’s Department of Biology, said the finding represents a “major new branch” that stands above the level of a new kingdom in terms of ranking lifeforms.
“These little organisms are all by themselves a group that is more different from everything we know about than animals are from fungi, said Simpson. “So fungi and animals in an evolutionary sense are closer to each other than this new thing is to anything we had information on before.”