Vampires are real, and they've been around for millions of years. At least, the amoebae variety has. So suggests new research from UC Santa Barbara paleobiologist Susannah Porter.
Using a scanning electron microscope to examine minute fossils, Porter found perfectly circular drill holes that may have been formed by an ancient relation of Vampyrellidae amoebae. These single-celled creatures perforate the walls of their prey and reach inside to consume its cell contents. Porter's findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"To my knowledge these holes are the earliest direct evidence of predation on eukaryotes," said Porter, an associate professor in UCSB's Department of Earth Science. Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells contain a nucleus and other organelles such as mitochondria.
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Porter examined fossils from the Chuar Group in the Grand Canyon -- once an ancient seabed -- that are between 782 and 742 million years old. The holes are about one micrometer (one thousandth of a millimeter) in diameter and occur in seven of the species she identified. The holes are not common in any single one species; in fact, they appear in not more than 10 percent of the specimens."I also found evidence of specificity in hole sizes, so different species show different characteristic hole sizes, which is consistent with what we know about modern vampire amoebae and their food preferences," Porter said. "Different species of amoebae make differently sized holes. The Vampyrellid amoebae make a great modern analog, but because vampire-like feeding behavior is known in a number of different unrelated amoebae, it makes it difficult to pin down exactly who the predator was."
Tiny vampires in ancient seas: evidence for predation via perforation in fossils from the 780–740 million-year-old Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, USA (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0221)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @04:27AM
I just want to say that I really like this sort of article. It's interesting. Maybe there is nothing to discuss, but that doesn't mean we don't like the article.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 29 2016, @12:05PM
Except that, I knew it! Frigging protoplasm sucking fiends have been at it since time immemorial. Blood-sucking lawyers! Intellectual Property litigators! Windows 10 upgrades! Have we learned nothing, my fellow eukaryotes? Fungus will rule the world, if we cannot stop such Blue on Blue attacks!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @12:58AM
Fungi are eukaryotic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2016, @07:31AM
the Chuar Group in the Grand Canyon -- once an ancient seabed
Evidence of Climate Change! See! The sea level rose so high that the ocean is now in space headed to the Oor Cloud! That, or it was boiled away! Yeah, that's it! The sea was boiled away during the dinosaur's industrial revolution! Whatever happened it had to be the fault of CO2 levels.
Another note: "Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells contain a nucleus and other organelles such as mitochondria." Except when they don't have Mitochondia! [npr.org] Scientists have discovered gut microbes which use iron and sulfur and don't have DNA for creating mitochondia. It's the first example of any eukaryote that completely lacks mitochondria. TFA is wrong again, as expected of climate change deniers!