I feel like the real question to answer here isn’t “Why are bacteria so simple?” (because if they were more complex they wouldn’t really be bacteria anymore), but rather “Why do there seem to be those 2 classes of cells (eukariotes and prokariotes)?”. In particular, (1) why aren’t there more cells with intermediate size and complexity, and (2) why didn’t bacteria get outcompeted out of existence by their cousins which were able to form much more complex adaptations?
(Note: I know very little about biology. Don’t trust me just because I never heard of medium-sized and medium-complex cell types that don’t neatly fit into one of the clusters of prokariotes and eukariotes.)
Nice post!
I feel like the real question to answer here isn’t “Why are bacteria so simple?” (because if they were more complex they wouldn’t really be bacteria anymore), but rather “Why do there seem to be those 2 classes of cells (eukariotes and prokariotes)?”. In particular, (1) why aren’t there more cells with intermediate size and complexity, and (2) why didn’t bacteria get outcompeted out of existence by their cousins which were able to form much more complex adaptations?
(Note: I know very little about biology. Don’t trust me just because I never heard of medium-sized and medium-complex cell types that don’t neatly fit into one of the clusters of prokariotes and eukariotes.)