FuzzyLord
Junior Acolyte
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2004
- Messages
- 69
(Excerpted from a thread in IHTM.)
RE: A slime mold aggregation called a "grex."
Slime Mold ?
... This is the motile phase of the life cycle of slime molds. Slime molds are amoeboid. To reproduce, the amoebas flow together and form a slug-like body called a grex. One celled animals come together to form something resembling a single macroscoping organism. The grex scoots about looking for a spot to rest. WHen it finds what it likes (good schools?), it becomes a "fruiting body", a bulb on a stalk. The seeming macroscopic animal becomes like a tiny plant. The fruiting body matures, bursts, and sends out spores which settle to the ground. In a moist environment, each spore becomes a new amoeba.
Why such a life cycle? Don't ask me; I just live here.
Anyway, if you poke a grex with a stick, it might lose its cohesion. This is also consistent with the observation that it fell apart into many smaller black worms as opposed to a pile of distinguishable mollusc innards.
Here is a web page on slime molds:
http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Slime_Molds/
They have a lot of photographs, but I found none that seem to bear out my hypothesis. ...
RE: A slime mold aggregation called a "grex."
Slime Mold ?
... This is the motile phase of the life cycle of slime molds. Slime molds are amoeboid. To reproduce, the amoebas flow together and form a slug-like body called a grex. One celled animals come together to form something resembling a single macroscoping organism. The grex scoots about looking for a spot to rest. WHen it finds what it likes (good schools?), it becomes a "fruiting body", a bulb on a stalk. The seeming macroscopic animal becomes like a tiny plant. The fruiting body matures, bursts, and sends out spores which settle to the ground. In a moist environment, each spore becomes a new amoeba.
Why such a life cycle? Don't ask me; I just live here.
Anyway, if you poke a grex with a stick, it might lose its cohesion. This is also consistent with the observation that it fell apart into many smaller black worms as opposed to a pile of distinguishable mollusc innards.
Here is a web page on slime molds:
http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Slime_Molds/
They have a lot of photographs, but I found none that seem to bear out my hypothesis. ...
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