Microbial History: The Part of History We Barely Talk About
The biggest missing piece
The proper study of mankind is often not man but microbes — Franklin Harold
In the middle of the 19th century, John William Dawson explored the remnants of the giants that ruled the land for millions of years before we considered building skyscrapers.
He was not interested in the dinosaurs or the ones discussed in the Book of Genesis after the angels copulated with man. His interests were a peculiar kind of beings that never moved with the kind of locomotive capabilities we’re used to attributing giants with.
He was quick to consider these ‘plants’ to be conifers. We can’t blame him. These complex creatures stood up to 8 meters tall. However, compared to the tall trees we see in rainforests, 8 meters is a juvenile tree.
At the time when they existed, however, they were the giants that stood like pedestals on the plain lands. The modern equivalent is the obelisks, which stand like giant toothpicks. They were just as tall.
These were not plants.
From 1840s to early 2000, there was great debate about prototaxites. That was the name given to the group of living creatures that puzzled many scientists until tests showed that it couldn’t match what we know about plants.
They were fungi.
Growing to around 8 meters tall.
When the land was bare and devoid of the hardwoods of the Amazon or Congo forests.
This bit of history tells us a lot. Firstly, there was a time when fungi ruled the land. Secondly, grouping giants as large as this in the category of microbiology can be misleading. How micro is 8 metres?
The world’s phenomena don’t know the categories we instill.
In such moments, we have to throw our hands up and acknowledge our profound ignorance.
Throw your hands up for HiiiPower — Kendrick Lamar
Animals in a microbial world
A detour to talk about our inescapable residents.
They live on and inside us — bacteria and viruses.
Viruses don’t get much airtime because they are often associated with diseases and death. Recently, a new strain of Corona virus was directed. That’s when we remember these organic components — when they invade our space.
But do they invade? Or are we the invasive ones and the spreaders?
If it took over 150 years to settle the prototaxites debate, I doubt the virus and bacteria one will be settled sooner. Present funding goes towards the kind of bacteria that cause human suffering. Few organizations can fund the need to settle the debate about which of the two emerged first.
What is inevitable, however, is they were there before us. They shaped the global climate before we could change agricultural practices and industrialized nations to the point of also influencing the climate.
We are the ones invading the life these creatures used to have.
We are animals living in a microbial world.
This much is so inescapable when we look at some of the stages of development of different insects. The complete and incomplete metamorphoses happening in the seas are so dependent on microbial triggers that development becomes incomplete in their absence.
Other creatures, such as the squid, need the bacteria, Vibrio fischeri, to develop their light organs. These organs are used to hunt in the dark, when the moon is up. The organs cannot mature without these bacteria.
Humans depend on a protein formed by viruses to form the placental lining and interface, and some studies even show how relevant it is in the formation of blood vessels to nourish the growing foetus. Placenta, however, is not only found in humans, but in almost all mammals. They would be impossible to form without viruses.
These tidbits are never discussed by historians. History is told of the greats who are often anomalies in the general spectrum. But even among humans, the ‘normal’ ones will be forgotten in the interest of preserving either the extremely amazing or inhumane people.
The highlights of history are the anomalies. Well, microbes are an example of an anomaly in history, whether they cause diseases or not, but will we ever get a historian who captures these facts?
My issue isn’t televised and you ain’t gotta tell the wise — Kendrick Lamar
Fungal exclusion
Prototaxites will stand as a single example of the possibility of misinterpretation which is a normal and forgivable error.
What gets excluded is the kingdom it represents — fungi.
In his book Gaia: The Practical Science of Practical Medicine, Jim Lovelock tries to marry what he learned as a physician with the global mechanisms the world uses to achieve a balance. Our bodies too have mechanisms for achieving balance, such as body temperature, pH and electrolyte shifts.
He gives examples of marine engineers who learned how to harvest calcium without attending any engineering schools. These are bacteria. He also mentioned how the chemical compounds produced by algae are responsible for creating the nuclei for forming clouds and how this ultimately changed the global climate in concert with the Albedo effect seen at the poles, and the movement of currents in different continental boundaries.
These are all never captured by historians.
But what is barely considered even by most scientists is the impact of fungi.
When the plants wanted to invade the terrestrial lands, they forged partnerships with fungi. Plants that had mycorrhizal relationships grow stronger, faster and bigger than those without.
By Natural Selection, they are the ones that later came to dominate. Plants would manufacture food through photosynthesis and the fungi would supply the minerals through their concoctions.
As a result, more trees grow and spread all over the land.
The offshoot was more carbon was being pumped to the ground. The starch would be supplied to the underground fungi, converted into oxalates and these could be used to break down rocks. This is one of the first processes of soil breakdown. Carbon would then remain underground.
Climate change followed suit.
Fungi, through their thriving relationships, resulted in a precipitous change in the climate of the world. Humans were late to the game. Fungi and bacteria have had a lot to contribute towards the changes we are only seeing presently.
However, mycology is barely studied as intensively as the other components of microbiology. They were once giants on land, and now, they are studied by only a handful of scientists.
I recall when I was in my third year of medicine, mycology was brushed off like it wasn’t worthy of our attention. In our exams, our lecturers told us the Spot exam would not cover mycology. I celebrated. But I shouldn’t have. I was becoming a part of the party that neglects this field that has much to teach us.
We’ve been down for too long, but that’s all right
We was built to be strong ’cause it’s our life, na-na-na— Alori Joh
But fungi continue to live, thrive and shape our worlds in ways we have only begun to scrape. For instance, the internet has hubs that are super connectors and responsible for a lot of what goes on online. Take away Google, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Whatsapp, and you might have chaos.
This is the kind of network that the fungal systems have established in forests.
It’s good to see people plant trees, but do they know the underground root system at work? Doubtful. It’s no different from the internet which we can only mention but can hardly map. The fungal root system, the wood wide web was the innovation of a microbial world, replicated into the world wide web.
But this part of history will only praise the innovative efforts of humanity.
What I’m trying to say is…
The neglected bits of history are often microbial.
It is bad that most historians only focus on the outliers in different historical epochs. It’s worse that we barely consider the microbial world.
The proper understanding of history will never be complete if we never integrate microbial events. As long as it continues to thrive right underneath our noses, we should never claim to have a captured history.
Microbes, bacteria, fungi, viruses and insects, among others, continue to build their pyramids and write their hieroglyphs.
There’s a lot to learn and unlearn.
It seems they have taken the advice of Kendrick Lamar:
So get up off that slave ship
Build your own pyramids, write your own hieroglyphs
We have a lot to learn.
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