Archaea Bacteria

Archaea bacteria were long thought extinct until their rediscovery in the late 1970's, hence their name, archaea, meaning ancient. They are single celled organisms that do not require oxygen or sunlight to live. They were unable to be placed in either Domains Prokaryote or Eukaryote because they had features similar to both, so they were sectioned off into their own domain, Archaea. These facinating organisms live in extremely hostile enviroments where few other's can survive.


Some archaea bacteria live in and around hydrothermal vents, rifts in the ocean floor that spew out noxious, toxic fumes. Others live around natural gysers. Both these enviroments are hostile because of their intense heat and high chemical content, which would make life unsustainable for other living creatures but sustains the archaea bacteria and the community of tube worms, mussels and other creatures that depend on the bacteria.


One particular archaea bacteria is Pyrococcus furiosus, shown here at the right, which caught my eye because of it's peculiar name.

Domain: Archaea
Kingdom: Archaea Bacteria
Phylum: Euryarchaeota
Class: Thermococci
Order: Thermococcales
Genus: Pyrococcus
Species: furiosus

Pyrococcus furiosus's best growth temperature is 100°C, the teperature at which water boils, but also grows between 70°C and 103°C. It is known as an Extremophile because of the high temperatures at which it sustains life. An interesting note about my before mentioned bacterium is that it utilizes enzymes that contain tungsten, an element rarely found in living organisms. It grows furiously with "a rapid doubling time of 37 minutes under optimal conditions". It was found in "geothermally heated marine sediments with temperatures between 90 ºC and 100 ºC collected at the beach of Porto Levante" at Vulcano Island, Italy.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556709/Archaea.html


http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/expeditions/blacksmokers/life_forms.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrococcus_furiosus