Satellite image of blue-green algae. To the west is Sweden, to the east is Denmark and to the northeast is Finland

In Scandinavia in summertime there are huge fields of blue-green algae. They are considered an annoyance as people can't bathe, they smell, they affect marine life and are considered generally esthetically unpleasing. The fact that's fascinating to me about them is that these algae is ancient - They are one of the most ancient lifeforms there is. The blue-green algae/cyanobacteria existed a billion years before the Cambrian explosion. When there was nothing, no trees, no animals... nothing... there was this very same soup of blue-green algae - for a billion years.

How's that for perspective.

-dR

I wonder what role such archaic organisms had in emergence of more complex life-forms. Especially considering the relatively sudden increase of variety during the cambrian explosion.

Cyanobacteria is also dangerous to the locals if they are not careful.
I wonder if they ship samples of the stuff from science labs, because I want to study this further.

That is a massive cyanobacteria bloom. I wonder what the proximate and ultimate causes were for the bloom? BTW Microcystis, Cylindrospermopsis, Anabaena, Nodularia, Oscillatoria and Aphanizomenon are the toxic cyanobacteria.

Look forward to more of these ancient organisms surging forth as we continue to destabilize the current global ecosystem regimes.