The sea is full of viruses - in fact the reason the sea is so lovely and clean and not a disgusting bacteria soup is that at any moment bacterio-phages are destroying a significant portion of the bacteria in the ocean and making them spew their nourishing innards to be used by other organisms.
Viruses affect all 3 branches of the tree of life equally. Meaning that in all likelihood viruses have been on earth as long as lifes universal common ancestor (LUCA) has. In fact some think that maybe viruses came first and are some left over of the more primitive forms of life that have long since gone extinct due to the more sophisticated life forms that inhabit the earth today.
The sea is full of viruses - in fact the reason the sea is so lovely and clean and not a disgusting bacteria soup is that at any moment bacterio-phages are destroying a significant portion of the bacteria in the ocean and making them spew their nourishing innards to be used by other organisms.
Viruses affect all 3 branches of the tree of life equally. Meaning that in all likelihood viruses have been on earth as long as lifes universal common ancestor (LUCA) has. In fact some think that maybe viruses came first and are some left over of the more primitive forms of life that have long since gone extinct due to the more sophisticated life forms that inhabit the earth today.