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Archaea




>
> I was reading some material about photosynthesis, and it was discussing a
type of
> bacteria that photosynthesises hydrogen sulfide instead of O2...I forget
the
> name of the bacteria, I'dhave to check my notes...wait here it is,
> archaebacteria: mud dwelling bacteria releases rotten egg smell when
> releasing sulfide instead of oxygen.  Is this bacteria present in
aquariums
> when we have a sulfide build up?
>
> Robert Paul H

Hey,  a lot of those anaerobic "bacteria" are archaebacteria.  The archaea
are actually one of the three main branches of the tree of life, and the
oddest one.  Regular bacteria are actually more closely related to us than
to these fun little anaerobes.  These guys also live in strange places like
deep sea hydrothermal vents, hotsprings and other inhospitable places that
resemble the conditions on early Earth.  My understanding was that they were
pretty much the main game in town until photosynthesis came along and
poisoned the atmosphere with oxygen.  I'd bet the anaerobes that give us the
rotten egg smell are achaebacteria, but I'm not a microbial ecologist, so
I'm not 100% sure.

In other cool news, there's also a species of terrestrial plant which
catches insects in its leaves and then uses the CO2 released when they decay
inside the vase shaped leaves.  How's that for an odd source of CO2?

Doug