Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1h

Very thorough answer

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1h

There is no data to support the hypothesis that anything outside the animal kingdom can feel pain

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1h

This is accurate. IMO slimes do have way more in common with animals even though they're just as closely related to fungi. I think animals & plasmodial slime molds are the only fully mobile macroscopic organisms. There are some pretty huge ciliates, though

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

This is most often called "false puffball" but also regionally referred to as "caca de luna" (moon poo) and "silver hand"

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

Yes! It is probably protecting its babies from sunburn

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

This is one of the best photos I've seen of this species

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

a magical world awaits

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · Jun 23

Didymium perforatum (and many other wonderful slimes) are at
www.instagram.com/kazumibanderas

Iridescent liquid metal dotted with regular holes: Didymium perforatum by Kazumi Banderas

Iridescent liquid metal dotted with regular holes covers part of a dry dead leaf: Didymium perforatum by Kazumi Banderas

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

This one can be cooked and eaten

... from "The Edibility of Reticularia lycoperdon (Myxomycetes) in Central Mexico" by María Mercedes, Rodríguez-Palma, Adriana Montoya, Alejandro Kong, and Rosario Vanegas: http://dx.doi.org/10.24966/FSN-1076/100025

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

Slime molds come in many dazzling forms

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 21d

Didymium perforatum by kazumi banderas: https://www.instagram.com/kazumibanderas

Licea parasitica (left) and Echinostelium minutum (right) from Poulain, Meyer, and Bozonnet

Reposted by regular slime guy

Anna Drehel @annadrehel.bsky.social · 14h

This is the most unusual Slime Mold I have ever came across. I needed assistance in identifying it and the verdict was it is a False Puffball Slime Mold. The color is so shiny and unnatural I actually smelled it to make sure it wasn't painted. #Hedgewatch #slimemold #fungi

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2h

It's actually done! It used to be a huge single cell amoeba called a plasmodium & it ate bacteria. Then it metamorphosed into this silver puff pillow. It will break up & release spores, leave a hairy mess behind, then disappear. Usually symbiotic beetles get into these and spread the spores.

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Our understanding of this stuff will always be composed of imperfect labels because the truth isn't accessible: it is an infinite branching of braided & isolated lineages whose ultimate kernels shed & accumulate new pieces by processes we don't fully understand & may never fully understand

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

This is obviously a simplification

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

In academic circles no one views it as an evolutionary or taxonomic group, but the word is still used by researchers who study certain microscopic eukaryotes because traditionally, different people study plants, animals, & fungi. Outside academia it is pretty widespread

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

It's complicated. It was a waste bin for species we couldnt easily place morphologically, but when genomics started to be integrated it really made a bit of a mess & a stable replacement never caught on. Protista and its equally dubious replacement Protozoa have had an unfortunate staying power

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Green & red seaweeds are more closely related to land plants than to anything else, & and plants are not really genetically distinct from green algae

Kelp & sargassum & other brown/yellow algae are definitely not plants though

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

The short version of what I just said is pretty much

Protists are 3 groups:

planty protists (genetically, not necessarily morphologically)

animaly protists

discobans (?)

... with a few exceptions like the guys who live inside termites and eat wood

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Both algae & amoebas are predominantly located in 3 major branches ("kingdoms"), 2 of which overlap (Harosa & Discoba have both). Some Harosan amoebas eat live prey & also photosynthesize. Some of them are multicellular and up to 3 meters long & they poop out both ends

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Protista has been fairly definitively placed into 5-10 major lineages (depending on how you divide them), but I can assure you that an absolutely breathtaking quantity of mystery remains. The amount we know we don't know dwarfs the amount we know

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

The major branches of protists all have edible members!

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Protists are an artificial grouping with no genetic, ecological, or morphological identity. There are decades of consistent genomic data indicating 6 major evolutionary branches of eukaryotes with multicellular life, 5 with macroscopic species, and several smaller groups with neither:

The 5 kingdoms with multicellular life: Plants, Harosans, Discobans, Amoebozoans, Animals, and Fungi

A slightly different tree placing Discoba basal to the rest. We see the 3 types of amoebas that exist

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

That makes sense

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 1d

Most of them turn brown, grey, black.

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2d

Slime molds are 80-90% water yet some of them live in the desert, hibernating until occasional rainfall or dew wakes them up

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2d

Slime molds are nutritious & often antimicrobial. They may arise even in hostile environments if moisture, pH, and microbial population become suitable. In one documented example, a nesting cormorant colony led to unusual slime molds emerging in a forest after years or decades of dormancy.

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