Fascinating Hypothesis: The Whole Idea Of Species Doesn't Apply To Certain Organisms
Collecting Time A remotely operated underwater vehicle collects samples of sand for scientists who study meiofauna and larger creatures, which are called macrofauna. Image courtesy of Deepwater Canyons 2013 - Pathways to the Abyss, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS Meiofauna are pretty weird. That's the term for all organisms that are an in-between size, about one-half to one millimeter, so they're much bigger than bacteria, but much smaller than ants. They live in the unlikely environment of spaces in between grains of sand at the bottom of oceans and lakes. And they include things like water bears. Now, a team of scientists is proposing something even weirder. Meiofauna might not even form different species, as they're commonly defined, the scientists wrote in an essay in the biologists' magazine The Scientist. Water Bear ...