Blue algae
| Cyanobacteria Temporal range: 3500–0Ma |
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| Tolypothrix sp. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Kingdom: | Eubacteria |
| Phylum: |
Cyanobacteria Stanier, 1973 |
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As of 2014[update] the taxonomy was under revision |
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As of 2014[update] the taxonomy was under revision
Cyanobacteria /saɪˌænoʊbækˈtɪəriə/, also known as Cyanophyta, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis, and are the only photosynthetic prokaryotes able to produce oxygen. The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός (kyanós) = blue). Cyanobacteria (which are prokaryotes) used to be called "blue-green algae". They have been renamed 'cyanobacteria' in order to avoid the term "algae", which in modern usage is restricted to eukaryotes.
Unlike heterotrophic prokaryotes, cyanobacteria have internal membranes. They are flattened sacs called thylakoids where photosynthesis is performed.
Phototrophic eukaryotes perform photosynthesis by plastids that have their ancestry in cyanobacteria, via a process called endosymbiosis. These endosymbiotic cyanobacteria in eukaryotes have evolved or differentiated into specialized organelles such as chloroplasts, etioplasts and leucoplasts.
By producing and releasing oxygen (as a byproduct of photosynthesis), cyanobacteria are thought to have converted the early oxygen-poor, reducing atmosphere, into an oxidizing one, causing the Great Oxygenation and the "rusting of the Earth" and the Great Oxygenation Event, which dramatically changed the composition of the Earth's life forms and led to the near-extinction of anaerobic organisms.
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Wikipedia