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Science

New Phylum Created After New Creature Discovered 28

Posted by michael from the sea-monkey dept.
dmatos writes "Scientists have found a completely new type of life in a well in Greenland. It doesn't fit into any existing phylum, so they were forced to create a new phylum for them. It's a 0.1mm long freshwater organism which reproduces by parthogenesis."
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New Phylum Created After New Creature Discovered More

New Phylum Created After New Creature Discovered

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  • In water that cold, of course there are no males.
  • Why must they torture these creatures like this? Cooped up in a refrigerator? Set them free! Let them enjoy a tropical beach!

    We don't need to study animal biology anyway, we can simulate anything in a computer anyway! We already know everything, and can learn how everything works by simulation!

  • So they found it in 1994 and have been keeping it in the refrigerator since then? I've had the same experience with old Chinese food found in the back of the fridge. That was nowhere NEAR 6 years old. And I won't make any jokes about Disco island.

    parthenogenesis (pärth-n-jn-ss) n. A form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual, occurring commonly among insects and certain other arthropods. Anybody want to explain how that works? The egg is unfertilized?
  • Yeah, I get it.

    --
    Give me a candidate who speaks out against the war on drugs.
  • Wow. Here I've sat in the lab all these years trying to create DNA by sparking a vial of pookey, and somebody upstages me by creating a whole new phylum! I should set my goals higher.

    --
    Give me a candidate who speaks out against the war on drugs.
  • How can jaws be complex? Aren't they just bones with teeth sticking out of them? How does an unfertilized egg reproduce? Why, if these were discovered six years ago, is this just being announced now? Why are they keeping a colony consisting of females? If they can reproduce on their own, what are males for? Why does none of this make sense? Does anyone know any of these answers?
  • Well, 0.1 mm is kind of big for "nano", but otherwise it sounds like the nanobots that created the earth got caught putting the finishing touches on Greenland.

    --
    Give me a candidate who speaks out against the war on drugs.

  • Re:Wow, what a backlog. (Score:3)

    by Royster ( 16042 ) on Friday October 13, 2000 @04:28AM (#709826) Homepage
    Normally, an egg contains a haploid (half) set of chromosomes. The sperm provides the other half. In parthenogenesis, the egg contains a full (diploid) set of chromosomes and develops just as if it had been a fertilized egg. It means that all of the daughters are genetically identical to the mother except for random mutations.

  • Re:a few questions (Score:3)

    by Royster ( 16042 ) on Friday October 13, 2000 @04:39AM (#709827) Homepage
    How can jaws be complex?

    They didn't describe them in detail in the article. They could have multiple mandibles or multiple joints. Plus, these creatures are tiny. Small creaturs usually have simple jaws if they have jaws at all.

    How does an unfertilized egg reproduce?

    See above. The egg has a diploid set of chromosomes, not the usual haplid set.

    Why, if these were discovered six years ago, is this just being announced now?

    Scientists usually like to study things for a while before announcing results. It probably took a while to determine that they were all female and were able to reproduce without males. Six years isn't too long to do a thorough job.

    Why are they keeping a colony consisting of females? If they can reproduce on their own, what are males for?

    There aren't any males. They are all females. Scary, eh?

    Why does none of this make sense? Does anyone know any of these answers?

    Nope, no one has a clue.

    "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is also stranger than we can imagine." Sorry, I don't know who said it.
  • The animal was found in samples taken in 1994 from a well in Isunngua on Disco island in northwestern Greenland

    First it's named Greenland in hopes of attracting settlers, then they name one of the islands Disco island! What a vacation that would be - you're all set for a week of fun in the lushness of Greenland on the party island of Disco, and when you get there you realize that it's 40 below and taken over by worms 0.1 mm long with complex jaws!

    Talk about false advertising!

  • I am SO GLAD to finally read something fascinating. On Slashdot no less!

    This is freaking awesome. Every day, I am constantly amazed by God's works. Imagine how many more life forms there could be in those rainforests we're torching every day? Now how's THAT for a cheerful Friday thought?
  • Scientists from Copenhagen University and Aarhus University in Denmark have established a new phylum -- or family -- for the tiny animal[...]
    If I remember my high school biology correctly, phylum != family. Does anyone know which taxonomal (sp?) category Micrognathozoa actually is?


  • Re:Phylum or Family? (Score:3)

    by mr.ska ( 208224 ) on Friday October 13, 2000 @08:05AM (#709831) Homepage Journal
    Lessee... it goes (AFAIK, IANABiologist);

    • Kingdom
    • Phylum
    • Class
    • Order
    • Family
    • Genus
    • Species
    I just looked that up.. I was pretty close, but forgot Class. So you're correct in that phylum!=family. Big time.
  • Just a friendly observation --

    This story was posted first on Bottomquark.com [bottomquark.com].

    If you like this story, you'd probably like bottomquark. In fact, as of next week we should have a shiny new T3 connection so that when 3,500 people decide to visit the site at once, you will actually recieve the page your browser requests :o)

    OldSaxon [mailto]


    You like science?

  • > I have no response to this, I just wanted to say sparking a vial of pookey

    Try it. It's fun. And legal, in most jurisdictions.

    --
    Give me a candidate who speaks out against the war on drugs.
  • Keep Plates Clean Or Family Gets Sick. OT, If anyone cares to know, plants have divisions inplace of phylums.
  • Wow. I recall reading something about some new life forms, something like flying worms in sizes from a few mm to a couple of feet long. At the time I thought it was just some weird psuedo-science stuff, but now I'm not so sure.

    What are the odds of finding life here on Earth so completely unrelated to anything we know? (Apart from /. trolls, that is)
  • What are the odds of finding life here on Earth so completely unrelated to anything we know? (Apart from /. trolls, that is)

    It does happen. I would nominate the proteins responsible for BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). It isn't life by the traditional definition, but it multiplies and causes disease.

  • Or King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti.

    Laugh if you will, I've never forgotten it.
    --
  • Sounds even more borderline is-it-life-or-isn't-it than virii.
    --
  • King Phillip Came Over From Granada, Spain worked for me ... I guess the whole conquistador idea kind of clicked in my mind.
  • I recall reading something about some new life forms

    Perhaps you mean 'rods'?
    http://www.trufax.org/rods/rods.shtml [trufax.org]

  • Re:Nanobots? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    finishing off the crinkly bits on the fjords perhaps?

  • Or the way I always remembered it:

    Kris Price Called On Friday--Great Sex!

    (OK, so I went to a school fulla hentai. But by the gods, it works to remember that...)

  • It goes like this:

    King Philip Came Over For Good Sex.

    That was from my seventh grade life-science teacher...


    -MSD.dyndns.org [dyndns.org]
    "Sucks to your ass-mar"
  • Yup. Those exactly. They were shown in one of those UFO/ChupaCabras/Paranormal/X-files segments on national TV once, and apparently they were being investigated by college students somewhere in Mexico.

    I have no idea if they're true or not, but it sounds freaky enough to be possible.
  • Ah, rods... a favorite topic among Art Bell listeners.
    I thought Cecil Adams covered this topic well.
    Here is the link [straightdope.com]
  • The URL at Reuters is broken (as of now). Here's a link at Yahoo! News [yahoo.com].

    --

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