(ETH) – And now for the most bizarre and fascinating story, you may read on the internet all day. According to a report from USA Today, Researchers have discovered what they believe is the only known animal that does not need oxygen to survive. The animal is a parasite that preys on salmon.
The new findings were published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and found that the parasite called “Henneguya salminicola” does not require aerobic respiration in order to survive. This finding is being heralded as a revelation that may change how we understand life on Earth and beyond.
This multicellular organism does not breathe at all and does not have mitochondrial DNA. It is the first multicellular animal that has been found in the wild to not possess the DNA, which contains the genes responsible for respiration, and has lost “the ability to perform aerobic cellular respiration,” per the study. Some single-celled organisms do not need respiration to survive.
