by Jamie | Long, long ago, some two billion years, when earthlings were represented solely by prokaryotes, there existed dense microbial mats, bustling with activity and with metabolic sophistication to match the most advanced engineering of eukaryotic metropolises of today. Included in the mats were many types of bacteria alongside their "oddball" brethren, members of the Archaea family. Like any complex community of entities with varied interests, there was friction, there was war, there were truces, there was stealing, and sometimes there was cooperation.
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