Cymbomonas alga
No. PLY262
This green alga, Cymbomonas,was recently caught on camera (okay, electron microscope) devouring bacteria. The images were definitive proof of a process that scientists have long thought was used by early organisms to acquire free-living chloroplasts, the structures that convert light into food. Bacteria-eating was likely the first step in the evolution of photosynthetic algae and land plants, which helped raise Earth’s oxygen levels and made the planet hospitable to animal life.