It is hard to believe that this microorganism is made of just one single cell!

Mar 13, 2025 9:06 PM

Maroccan

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@dr.bio4ever : It is hard to believe that this microorganism is made of just one single cell!

All the videos in this post are portraying the same microorganism (the protozoan Stentor) at different magnifications.

Despite being a single-cell microorganism, Stentor displays an incredibly complex behavior, such as its ability to sense and respond to changes in its environment.

For example, when threatened, Stentor can rapidly contract its trumpet-shaped body, shrinking in size quickly to avoid harm. Another incredible behavior is its ability to switch between anchoring itself to a surface to feed or detaching and swimming freely depending on the conditions.

It blows my mind that a single cell microscopic creature can have such sophisticated behavior!

Biology is just amazing!!

For these videos I used an Olympus CX31 microscope at up to 200x magnification.

What’s the little guy bouncing around in the first video?

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Protozoan, just like Trump's brain.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It gets cilia and cilia.

2 years ago | Likes 41 Dislikes 0

Nice! However, the term protozoa was deprecated decades ago - protists now!

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh to be a single celled organism. Such a simple life.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Stentor? I hardly knew her!

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They are kinda cute little fellas. Well cute little themsies I suppose. Kina looks like they are using little chainsaws to move/explore.

2 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

The cell of a single-celled animal has to be pretty complicated. The cells of a multiple-celled animal are simple in comparison since each of those cells doesn't have to do everything.

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

I wanna play spore again

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That's a lot of mitochondria

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh look. You found fElons daddy

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It's my favorite among filter-feeding, heterotrophic ciliates.

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Looks like a lil squishy roomba trying to get around that brown stuff with their whirring little legs like "oop - bonk - nope not through there!"

2 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

I thought it looked like Gustav Klimt's The Kiss https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-kiss-gustav-klimt/HQGxUutM_F6ZGg?hl=en&avm=2

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#3 Don't you just hate it when you're pushing and pushing and it just goes back in because you got tired?

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Chainsaw mohawk engage!

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I want to go play Spore now

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

That game had so much promise

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Or flOw

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Wikipedia says they can grow up to 2mm which is visible to the naked eye. That is a big cell.

2 years ago | Likes 66 Dislikes 0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea<">a">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea</a>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Those are awesome, great links!

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

A chicken egg is a single cell. An ostrich egg. Etc.

2 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

I know anx understand this and its still weird to me

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Sure but those aren't really alive yet, just a container. That thing is moving around and consuming to produce energy.

2 years ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

If you're curious I caught the cilia at 600fps:

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

That’s awesome! Do you post your work online anywhere?

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I post very infrequently on YouTube under channel name "nik282k"

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Needs a soundtrack

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0