Obelisk (biology)

Obelisks are a newly discovered life form, as of early 2024.  Obelisks are very small; they are smaller than viruses. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00266-7 They are like viruses but different. Obelisks "are flattened circles of RNA." There is great variety in their specific shapes: about 30,000 different shapes have been identified so far. Obelisks have been found in humans' mouths and other parts of the digestive tract. https://www.sciencealert.com/obelisks-entirely-new-class-of-life-has-been-found-in-the-human-digestive-system 

"These mysterious bits of genetic material have no detectable sequences or even structural similarities known to any other biological agents."  How obelisks relate to their environment is not yet known.

Further reading
 Original research pre-print: Zheludev, I. N. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.20.576352 (2024)
 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2414677-strange-virus-like-replicators-discovered-in-the-human-gut/

References

Category:RNA