microbial life
Microscopic living things
Microbial life refers to living organisms too small to see without magnification—bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses (though whether viruses count as "life" is debated).
The term often appears in discussions of extreme environments or astrobiology: Scientists search for microbial life on Mars.
On Earth, microbial life dominates by sheer biomass and metabolic diversity.
- primordial soupHypothetical life-origin mixture
- archaeaThird domain of life
- cyanobacteriaPhotosynthetic bacteria producing oxygen
- extremophilesOrganisms surviving extreme conditions
- hot springsHeated groundwater emerging naturally
fermentation · starter culture · panspermia · symbiosis · probiotics · fungi · exobiology · nitrogen fixation · food chain · decomposition · biofilms · bioremediation · biosignatures · photosynthesis · single-celled organisms · spore · amoeba · pathogen
- Soilsoil, topsoil, subsoil, dirt, loam
- Archean Eongreenstone belts, stromatolites
- biocontainmentdecontamination, sterilization, clean rooms, isolation protocols, quarantine protocols
- PanspermiaFrancis Crick, cosmic origins
- subglacial lakes
microbial lifemegafauna
Species over 44 kilograms
macroorganisms · whales · complex life · elephants · vertebrates