Musings of a Musical Biologist

We’ve talked about how it all started, ending on the last universal common ancestor, more commonly known as LUCA. Today’s topic is about a microorganism that just floats along with the ocean current, an organism that is very much overlooked when we talk about marine life however, if removed from the equation, would end up collapsing the entire ecosystem. I’m talking about Planktons. So, the word Plankton literally translates to “drifter” in Greek, since their only form of locomotion is to be carried by the current. Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than one inch in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish. Some planktons stay planktons their whole life, for example; krill, that are the main source of food for Blue whales. Scientists have divided planktons into 3 groups; Phytoplankton, Zooplankton and Bacterioplankton. Phytoplankton Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that play a huge role in the food web. Like plants on land, phytop...