00:00 [Music]
00:04 Organisms on this planet are most often categorized as either plants, animals, or fungi.
00:09 Of course, that's a bit reductive, and bacteria and other microorganisms exist.
00:13 However, there is another type of organism on this planet,
00:16 and it has been stumping scientists with regards to its fossil history for years.
00:21 These are euglenids, or a group of single-celled eukaryotes that use both photosynthesis
00:26 and the eating of other cells for sustenance.
00:28 They split from the more commonly understood eukaryote about a billion years ago,
00:32 but there has been little fossil evidence collected for them.
00:35 Or has there?
00:36 Researchers recently realized that this is a euglenid fossil,
00:39 but it has been miscategorized since the 60s,
00:42 with biologists believing these fossils to be worm eggs, algal cysts, or fern spores,
00:47 and they have been evading scientists because of a special skill they possess.
00:50 In times of stress, euglenids are able to cocoon themselves in a protective cyst,
00:55 a process only recently observed in action.
00:57 With the researchers saying about it,
00:59 "We were much surprised by the ultra-structure of the cysts.
01:02 The structure of the wall does not resemble anything that is known."
01:06 Adding that this ability has allowed euglenids
01:08 to weather every extinction event our planet has ever seen,
01:11 even the one that did in the dinosaurs.
01:14 [MUSIC]
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