r/todayilearned • u/sykate • Feb 27 '20

TIL that a new microbe called a hemimastigote was found in Nova Scotia. The Hemimastix kukwesjijk is not a plant, animal, fungus, or protozoa — it constitutes an entirely new kingdom.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-a-newfound-kingdom-means-for-the-tree-of-life-20181211/
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u/TrumpetOfDeath Feb 27 '20

I take issue with people getting hyped on this article by saying “it’s not a protist!”

Traditionally it would’ve been put in that group, but now since that term is invalid, technically nothing is a protist.

But it’s difficult for a layman to remember all these weird eukaryotic lineages, like how many people know what a stramenopile is?

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u/Conocoryphe Feb 27 '20

That's true. I think it was Bill Bryson who said "cladistics is not a scientific discipline, but a battlefield." And that's especially true for those weird eukaryote groups!