do all species have a gut microbiome? I have heard much discussion regarding the bacteria in our gut. Is this phenomenon unique to us or do all species have additional bacteria living in stomach?
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Most likely yes, it’s just not especially well studied overall. Bacteria are everywhere and it stands to reason that some have evolved to survive most guts and in net those that help will do better then those that don’t. Note that carnivores avoid meat spoiling in great part by the extreme shortness of their digestive tracks: it doesn’t have time to spoil (i.g. bad bacteria to overgrow). There could be special cases like maybe bone vultures or the like who have especially extreme stomach acid but I’m not aware of this actually being the case.
Our cells themselves are likely combinations of multiple other types of cells. mitochondria for example are essentially separate cells that lives inside our cells, acting like a stomach for our cell in exchange for it’s protection.
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