Biology was nearly broken around 100 years ago when scientists discovered single-celled organisms that could create methane as a byproduct of their own natural processes. Now, we’re being thrown once again, as researchers have discovered another class of creatures with the same ability.
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00:00Biology was nearly broken around a hundred years ago, when scientists discovered single-cell
00:09organisms that could create methane as a by-product of their own natural processes.
00:14Now we're being thrown once again, as researchers have discovered another class of creatures
00:18with the exact same ability.
00:20They are methane-producing prokaryotes, and two varieties were recently found in hot springs
00:24in Yellowstone National Park.
00:26They come from a different phylum than the previously mentioned, methanogenesis urearcariota.
00:31Both groups, however, do not require oxygen, rather converting methanol to methane for
00:35survival.
00:36And these findings have been corroborated by researchers on the other side of the world
00:40as well.
00:41Researchers in China discovered similar organisms in an oil field.
00:44With the researchers' writing, our findings confirm that the diversity of methanogens
00:48expands beyond the classical urearcariota.
00:51Experts now know that methanogens are the reason for most of the methane in our atmosphere,
00:56even more than our planet's volcanoes, meaning they are also an important part of both atmospheric
01:01emissions and Earth's general carbon cycle.