Scientists Discover First Animal That Does Not Need Oxygen To Live

We all need Oxygen to survive without that mankind would be extinct. But surprisingly, there is an animal that does not need oxygen to live. Researchers recently discovered a unique organism that doesn't need oxygen to breathe.

In a strange discovery, researchers have come across a non-oxygen breathing animal. This tiny parasite lives in salmon tissue and so it doesn't need oxygen to produce energy.

According to CNN report, a study on this finding was published in PNAS by Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers led by Professor Dorothee Huchon of the School of Zoology at TAU's Faculty of Life Sciences and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.

"Aerobic respiration was thought to be ubiquitous in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case. Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions. Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this critical pathway," Prof. Huchon explains the process. 

The H. salminicola is a myxozoan cnidarian, an animal related to jellyfish and coral. It lives inside salmon and takes ready-made nutrients from it, instead of consuming oxygen directly. The parasite also lives in low-oxygen environments, so it doesn't breathe, CNN further reports. 

With time, other organisms like fungi, amoebas or ciliates living in anaerobic environments have lost the ability to breathe.