442: Fossil Phototroph Phagocytosis

This episode: Algae surviving impact that killed the dinosaurs
seem to have consumed other organisms to make it through the dark
times!


Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Chaetoceros tenuissimus RNA virus 01


News item



Takeaways




Being able to look through time and learn about what might
have happened to creatures throughout Earth's history is what
makes paleontology great. Everyone knows about dinosaurs and
what happened to them at the end of the Cretaceous period
thanks to science. But what we can learn is not limited just
to large organisms; there are ways to learn about
microorganisms of the past as well, including by looking at
fossils!


 


In this study, fossils of hard-shelled algae from around the
end of the dinosaurs show that many of these microbes in the
oceans went extinct at the same time due to the massive space
impact. Debris blocked out sunlight for years, making it
difficult for photosynthetic organisms to survive. So some of
these algae appear to have survived by preying on smaller
organisms, pulling them in through a hole in their shell.



 
Journal Paper:
Gibbs SJ, Bown PR, Ward BA, Alvarez SA, Kim H, Archontikis OA,
Sauterey B, Poulton AJ, Wilson J, Ridgwell A. 2020. Algal
plankton turn to hunting to survive and recover from
end-Cretaceous impact darkness. Sci Adv 6:eabc9123.


Other interesting stories:



Phages could help treat diabetic wound infections without
harming microbiota (paper)




 


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com. Thanks for listening!


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