On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 05:20:22 +0000 (UTC), Jarek Hirny
 wrote:

>> The underground environment represents what I previously described as the 
>> "nooks and crannies" of the world - where most bacteria
have been driven 
>> by the virtual conquest of the land by complex organisms.  
>
>Tim,
>
>I'd be really grateful if you'd provide me with some arguments for your
>thesis, the one left above. You seem to take it for granted that complex
>organisms drove out the simple ones from their niches, yet I can't
>recall anything which would support it. 
>
>E.g. what is the niche that once was populated by Eukaryota and which has
>been conquered by human/apes or just anything more complex? Where
>number of Eukaryotes (absolutely, not relatively) grew smaller and
>smaller?
>
>Simple organisms are, well, simple. They may faster adapt to changing
>also, probably, in general, they have a wider range of allowable
>conditions in which they can live. I see no reason why they could be
>driven out -- yes, the conditions change, but this makes no problem for
>them.
>

Tim seems to be afflicted by the common blinders of anthropocentric
thinking.  The terrestrial habitat is an exceptionally difficult one
to survive in. Only the multicellular plants, animals, and fungi were
able to produce the structural complexity necessary to prevent
desiccation, support the body against gravity, and reproduce without
water. If we very large organisms simply look around our world, we see
only complexity where the microorganisms inhabit only "nooks and
crannies" of wetness where they can find it.  The fallacy is, as you
point out, the microbes never were here on land in the first place to
be displaced.  In aquatic systems and substrate (soil and sediment)
which are wet, the prokaryotes were always present and have never been
displaced.  And they have also invaded our own terrestrial world in
every location and instance that gives them an opportunity.
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