🌅 A New Heat Tolerance Record for Complex Life on Earth

SOURCE

Rappaport et al. (2026)

WHAT TO KNOW

• A newly identified amoeba named Incendiamoeba cascadensis can grow and divide at temperatures up to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, marking a new high for the hottest temperature at which complex life can replicate. Researchers at Syracuse University found I. cascadensis is mobile at up to 147° F and formed a protective shell around itself at 158° F. The discovery challenges scientists’ current understanding of where and how complex life can survive, and broadens the search of where life might exist in the universe.

WHY IT MATTERS

• All known life falls under one of two categories: prokaryotic or eukaryotic. Prokaryotes are simple, single-cell organisms that lack a nucleus, including bacteria and archaea. Eukaryotes, on the other hand, are complex organisms that store their DNA inside a membrane-bound nucleus, representing an expansive category of life on Earth, including humans, plants, animals, and fungi. Amoebas, despite being single-celled and neither a plant, animal, nor fungi, are eukaryotes that are far more complex than prokaryotic organisms. Prior to the present study, the heat tolerance record for eukaryotic life was 140° F, set by certain species of fungi and red algae (prokaryotic life is known to survive temperatures as high as 250° F).

CONNECT THE DOTS

• I. cascadensis was discovered living in hot springs at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California. However, when the researchers compared its genetic code to other amoebas found in geothermal waters, the DNA indicated that relatives of the newly discovered “fire amoeba” could be living in New Zealand and Yellowstone National Park.