The largest bacterium discovered is visible to the naked eye
Image Credit:earth
When you hear the word "bacteria," you usually think of microscopic critters that can only be seen under a microscope
However, a bacteria that is now regarded as the biggest in the world to ever be discovered can be seen with the human eye without the aid of any special equipment
It has a filament-like appearance and can grow as long as an eyelash, hence the name "thiomargarita magnifica."
That makes it larger than other more complicated species, like small flies, mites, and worms, the BBC points out.
Olivier Gros, a marine scientist, originally discovered it in 2009 while residing on submerged mangrove tree leaves in the French Caribbean.
Gros initially believed he was looking at a eukaryote rather than a simpler prokaryotic organism like a bacterium because of the size of the organism.
He didn't realise it wasn't the case at all until he returned to his laboratory. Years later, to prove that the bacteria is in fact a single-cell organism, Jean-Marie Volland and his group
Marie Volland and his group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California used a variety of methods, including transmission electron microscopy
A article reporting the centimeter-long bacterium was only been published in Science.
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