| "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeum" | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Archaea |
| Clade: | "Proteoarchaeota" |
| Kingdom: | Promethearchaeati |
| Phylum: | "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeota" Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka et al. 2017 |
| Class: | "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeia" Rinke et al. 2021 |
| Order: | "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeales" Wu et al. 2022 |
| Family: | "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeaceae" Wu et al. 2022 |
| Genus: | "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeum" Wu et al. 2022 |
| Species | |
| |
" Candidatus Heimdallarchaeum" is a genus of archaea that in turn forms a distinct group within the Promethearchaeati kingdom. [1] Named after the mythical Norse god, Heimdall, one of the sons of Odin, it is considered the closest relative of eukaryotes. [2] [3] The first specimens were discovered by a team of microbiologists at the Uppsala University, Sweden [4] from the marine sediments at Loki's Castle (hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic Ocean) and Bay of Aarhus (a waterway in Denmark), and some other species from Auka hydrothermal vent field in the Pacific Ocean. [5] Its class, "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeia" is the group of archaea that eukaryotes emerged. A later study reports that their newly developed data shows that the promethearchaeon ancestors of eukaryotes are rooted in a group older than the "Candidatus Heimdallarchaeia. [6] The genus and its family, order and class are not recognized by LPSN as "pro-correct". [7]
