tl;dr: Microorganisms used to live without oxygen. Some organisms started sprewing oxygen. Oxygen killed off most of these oxygen-free microorganisms. Life evolved and adapted. There's this lake in which the bottom layer is oxygen-less and oxygen-free microorganisms exist there. Scientists are doing a bunch of studies of this ecosystem.

I wouldn't call those organisms "alien." They were first in this planet!

[–] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And lethal...

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, sure. We'd deserve it for striking first.

Edit: I misunderstood your comment. I see it now :)

[–] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

My bad. I meant the "lethal" in the title. Title makes it sound as if a deadly pandemic happens if that lake thaws.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Oh hehe, apologies.

And I know, right?!! So click-baity.

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

single-celled photosynthetic bacterium

Bacteria are always single-celled, and quite frankly, I don't know why the ones in question are such a big deal, there are plenty of prokaryotes that thrive under anaerobic conditions.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 months ago

Having seen enough exceptions in biology, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found a multicellular bacterial species that violates everything we know about bacteria. Biology is completely wild, and it’s really hard to come up with a rule or a category that always works and nobody has any problems with it.