Thermophile
![Thermophiles produce some of the bright colors of Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park](/Images/godic/202501/12/Grand_prismatic_spring5524.jpg")
![A colony of thermophiles in the outflow of Mickey Hot Springs, Oregon, the water temperature is approximately
60 °C (140 °F).](/Images/godic/202501/12/Thermophilic_bacteria5524.jpg")
A thermophile is an organism — a type of extremophile — that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 41 and 122 °C (106 and 252 °F). Many thermophiles are archaea. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earliest bacteria.