May 9, 2015

Hydrothermal vents at Loki's Castle where Lokiarchaeota were found (Photo courtesy R.B. Pedersen, Centre for Geobiology (University of Bergen, Norway). All rights reserved)

In an article published in the journal “Nature”, an international team of researchers described the discovery of new microbes that constitute a missing link in the evolution of complex cells, those of eukaryotes. They were called Lokiarchaeota because they were found in a hydrothermal vent in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean between Greenland and Norway called Loki’s Castle.