Just read a news article about how 3 completely new types of bacteria have been found on the international space station due to it’s isolation, if that’s the case then how did they get there if we have never observed them before? what created them?
In: Biology
for something to be considered a new species, it has to be unable to reproduce successfully with the original organisms. Let’s say that we have two groups of the same species of bacteria, Bacteria X and Bacteria Y. X and Y are, right now, the exact same species, and can reproduce with one another. Let’s keep X on earth and shoot Y to space, and leave them for a few years. Bacteria reproduce very quickly, and therefore evolve more quickly. Evolution is just random mutations that help survival being passed down from generation, and since bacteria generations are so fast, they can evolve to suit their new environments very quickly. This would happen even if they weren’t in space! Like if we put Bacteria Y in a new climate on earth this would happen too. But now let’s take Bacteria Y out from orbit and compare them to Bacteria X. Y is now so different from X that they can no longer reproduce, and that means that Y is a new species.
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