An absolutely ginormous bacterium

Thiomargarita magnifica

With a length of up to 1 centimetre, the filament-like Thiomargarita magnifica is the largest bacterium ever found. It lives on the border of seawater and sediment in mangrove swamps.

The bacterium is roughly the shape and the size of a human eyelash, 5000 times longer than an E. coli cell.

This size difference between E. coli and Thiomargarita magnifica would correspond to a human being as tall as Mount Everest!