First, there were bacteria in space. Now, we have viruses big enough to rival bacteria found in the soil under Massachusetts. And with more complex genomes to boot.
"We were not looking for giant viruses," says biologist Jeff Blanchard from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass).
"Our goal was to isolate bacteria directly from the environment to understand how microbial communities are changing in response to soil warming."
"Soil is immensely diverse," says one of the UMass researchers, Lauren Alteio, "and we are only beginning to scratch the surface of the organisms and viruses that inhabit it."
Peter Dockrill has more on this at Science Alert.
(Image credit: Jeff Blanchard/UMass Amherst)