[kach22i]

Nov 15, 2018
Rare microbes lead scientists to discover new branch on the tree of life
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hemimastigotes-supra-kingdom-1.4715823

This is an electron microscope image of Hemimastix kukwesjijk, named after Kukwes, a greedy, hairy ogre from Mi'kmaq mythology. Its 'mouth' or capitulum is on the left. (Submitted by Yana Eglit)

"There's nothing we know that's closely related to them."

In fact, he estimates you'd have to go back a billion years — about 500 million years before the first animals arose — before you could find a common ancestor of hemimastigotes and any other known living things.