Heimdallarchaeota

Heimdallarchaeota (also Heimallarchaeota^[1]) is a group of archaea that in turn forms a distinct group within the superphylum Asgard.^[1] Named after the mythical Norse god, Heimdall, one of the sons of Odin, it consist of several archaea that are considered as the closest relatives of eukaryotic organism (protists, fungi, plants and animals).^[2][3] The first specimens were discovered from the marine sediments at Loki's Castle (hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic Ocean) and Bay of Aarhus (waterway in Denmark), and some other species from Auka hydrothermal vent field in the Pacific Ocean.^[4] Proposed as a phylum, it consists of a class Heimdallarchaeia, that contains at least three orders and three genera. Discovered by team of microbiologists at the Uppsala University, Sweden, led by Thijs Johannes Gerardus Ettema, and reported in 2017,^[5] Heimdallarchaeota is the group to which eukaryotes, or more specifically, from where the common ancestor of all eukaryotes emerged.^[3]