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Specimen
072
Spirulina is a microscopic and filamentous cyanobacterium that derives its name from the spiral or helical nature of its filaments. Cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, obtain energy via photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria are the first organisms known to have produced oxygen. By producing and releasing oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria are thought to have converted the early oxygen-poor, reducing atmosphere into an oxidizing one, causing the Great Oxidation Event and the "rusting of the Earth", which dramatically changed the composition of the Earth's life forms. Spirulina has a long history of use as food and it thought to have been consumed since the days of the Aztec civilization. |