Table 1. Classification and general features of M. australiensis 50-1 BON^T according to the MIGS recommendations [13] and the NamesforLife database [14].

MIGS ID	Property	Term	Evidence code
	Current classification	Domain Bacteria	TAS [15]
		Phylum Firmicutes	TAS [16,17]
		Class Clostridia	TAS [18,19]
		Order Thermoanaerobacterales	TAS [18,20]
		Family Thermoanaerobacteraceae	TAS [18,21]
		Genus Mahella	TAS [1]
		Species Mahella australiensis	TAS [1]
		Type strain 50-1 BON	TAS [1]
	Gram stain	positive	TAS [1]
	Cell shape	rod-shaped	TAS [1]
	Motility	motile by peritrichous flagella	TAS [1]
	Sporulation	swollen sporangia, terminal spores	TAS [1]
	Temperature range	30°C–60°C	TAS [1]
	Optimum temperature	50°C	TAS [1]
	Salinity	0.1%-4% NaCl	TAS [1]
MIGS-22	Oxygen requirement	strictly anaerobic	TAS [1]
	Carbon source	arabinose, cellobiose, fructose, galactose,     glucose, mannose, sucrose, xylose and yeast extract	TAS [1]
	Energy metabolism	chemoorganotroph	TAS [1]
MIGS-6	Habitat	oil fields	TAS [1]
MIGS-15	Biotic relationship	free-living	NAS
MIGS-14	Pathogenicity	not reported
	Biosafety level	1	TAS [22]
	Isolation	oil well in Queensland	TAS [1]
MIGS-4	Geographic location	Riverslea Oil Field in the Bowen-Surat basin, Queensland, Australia	TAS [1]
MIGS-5	Sample collection time	1997	NAS
MIGS-4.1	Latitude	roughly -27.32	NAS
MIGS-4.2	Longitude	roughly 148.72	NAS
MIGS-4.3	Depth	not reported
MIGS-4.4	Altitude	not reported

Evidence codes - IDA: Inferred from Direct Assay (first time in publication); TAS: Traceable Author Statement (i.e., a direct report exists in the literature); NAS: Non-traceable Author Statement (i.e., not directly observed for the living, isolated sample, but based on a generally accepted property for the species, or anecdotal evidence). These evidence codes are from of the Gene Ontology project [23]. If the evidence code is IDA, the property was directly observed by one of the authors or an expert mentioned in the acknowledgements.