Parakaryon Life Classification Mystery

Parakaryon myojinensis is a single-celled organism so strange that biologists still cannot place it cleanly anywhere on the tree of life. Japanese researchers described it in 2012 from a single specimen collected near the Myojin Knoll hydrothermal vent field, and the cell appeared to mix features seen in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes while fitting neither group. Because scientists have never found another confirmed specimen, they have not been able to culture it properly or sequence enough data to settle what it is.

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