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
Bacteria come from other bacteria. As for where “new” bacteria come from, there are two answers to that:
One, we don’t have a catalog of every type of bacteria that exists. The number of different bacteria that we don’t have a record of probably outnumbers the ones that we do know about explicitly. So sometimes a new type of bacteria is discovered not because it came from anywhere, but because no one noticed it before.
Two, every time a bacterium reproduces, just like anything else, there is a chance the reproduction process will include errors. These errors are mutations, which can change the nature of the bacteria that result. Accumulate enough mutations, and you wind up with, effectively, a new bacteria.
Bacteria reproduce extremely quickly in comparison to most macroscopic life, so changes that would take millennia or longer to happen in most species can take place in a matter of a few years with bacteria.
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