Microsporidia not so primitive according a to a report in Nature vol. 418, p827, 22 August 2002. Microsporidia are tiny yeast-like cells that were considered to be early forms of life because they don’t have mitochondrial structures inside cells that make chemical energy using oxygen. Recent gene studies have found they do have some of the genes for mitochondria. Microbiologists at the University of Dundee, U.K. studied microsporidia with an electron microscope and found tiny structures similar to mitochondria but much smaller. Some scientists believe these structures used to be mitochondria which have shrunk and lost their function. Others believe they are not mitochondria but specialised structures for making iron-sulphur clusters.
Editorial Comment: This study confirms the creationist belief that there is no such thing as a “primitive” organism. There are some organisms whose functions we don’t yet understand (an indication of our ignorance, not our origin) and some organisms that have become degenerate, i.e. they have lost functions, the opposite of evolution. In either case the proper scientific approach is to do more research and find out. Whatever the answer turns out to be for microsporidia, all known evidence fits the Biblical history of living things, i.e. created perfection followed by degeneration. (Ref. microsporidia, mitochondria)