Welcome to the family! Scientists find deep-sea microbes are 'missing link' for complex life on Earth - and our oldest relatives

Welcome to the family! Scientists find deep-sea microbes are 'missing link' for complex life on Earth - and our oldest relatives,
May 6, 2015,
By Reuters,
Daily Mail,

Deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean between Greenland and Norway, scientists have found microorganisms they call a missing link connecting the simple cells that first populated Earth to the complex cellular life that emerged roughly 2 billion years ago.

The researchers said the group of microorganisms called Lokiarchaeota, or Loki for short, were retrieved from the inhospitable, frigid seabed about 1.5 miles (2.35 km) under the ocean surface. They were found not too far from a hydrothermal vent system off Norway called Loki's Castle, named after a Norse mythological figure.