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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 7h

Frogs are just coelacanths with fewer limbs

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 11h

I am a person and my name is anakin

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 12h

This is actually a type of very large amoeba, & it is nontoxic. It is traditionally eaten & used as an antiseptic by some indigenous groups in Ecuador. It has been documented in the lab producing effective antimicrobial metabolites

... from www.instagram.com/yeweijun98/

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 12h

I love him

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 12h

Slime molds do not eat dead stuff, animal stuff, or plant stuff (some exceptions in the lab)

So they do not eat bones. But some species do enjoy eating the microbes that live in areas with bones, like Physarum apiculosporum growing among in the absolute fecal devastation of a cormorant colony

Physarum apiculosporum, from Lizárraga et al, 2016: http://dx.doi.org/10.5248/130.1073

Physarum apiculosporum, from Kosheleva et al., 2008: https://www.fungaldiversity.org/fdp/sfdp/31-4.pdf

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 13h

It has an internal skeleton of calcium carbonate, formed when the sporocarp pumps out water to dry the spores to maturity. This may help the spores disperse further. The bones contain molecular water & are also water absorbent, but how relevant this is to maturation is not clear

The tubes connected to the peridium (middle) pump out water and leave behind calcium carbonate (chalk, "lime") in the form of tiny spheres (bottom) on the outside of the peridium (top). In Badhamia species most or all tubes are calcified. The tubes (calcified or not) are called the "capillitium."

Here the spherical chalky contents of the calcified tubes are visible

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 17h

This looks like a fungus. Did you poke it?

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

oh no

oh God oh no

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

Oh this is lovely

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

Agree

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

It sure does

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

Learning isn't embarrassing

It is a triumph for everyone involved

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

amoebozoans

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

I like when they dance

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

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · Jul 6

In this video, our slime mold hero heads toward the honey to eat up all the glucose, then sets up shop farming microbes in yogurt town!

What topping do slime molds like on their oat flakes? #experiment #science #plasmodium #slimemold

YouTube video by Vicas' Projects

youtube.com

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

A closeup of a time lapse by Julian Cabral on youtube

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

Obviously we can't see it in the soil when it is traveling & actively feeding, but luckily some of its close relatives are aquatic:

CarolinaPhoenix🏳️‍⚧️💜 @carolinaphoenix.net · Aug 30

Yesterday morning I noticed a slime mold growing in one of my aquariums. So of course I set up a timelapse camera!

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

If you can believe it, this is actually a truly enormous singular amoeba.

Here is a time lapse of a relative (by @hannahandnemo on instagram):

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

Tubifera ferruginosa.

Beautiful!

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

This is a slime mold: an enormous single cell amoeba named Didymium spongiosum! It lives in the soil eating bacteria & yeasts. When it gets full it emerges to fruit, usually on grass or live plants. Slime molds are in kingdom Amoebozoa, & are the only mobile macroscopic organism other than animals

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

Hello, this is a physarid amoebozoan. It is full of tiny bones

6 kingdoms with multicellular life: Plants, Harosans, Discobans, Amoebozoans, Animals, and Fungi. All slime molds that are visible without magnification (and also many microscopic examples) are found in Amoebozoa.

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

The majority of slime molds form tiny balls or blobs like this, but you're more likely to overlook them.

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

These fruit bodies are mature and this species always produces them in this morphology.

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

This is probably Physarum cinereum or Badhamia sp., a myxogastrid / myxomycete from Kingdom Amoebozoa. They do not form mycelium: all these fruit bodies were made by a single large mobile amoeba. Slime molds like this eat bacteria & other microbes, not decaying wood or any other plant matter.

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

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · Jul 5

from www.instagram.com/yeweijun98

Slime molds eat the microbes on decaying plants but not the microbes on decaying animals. Badhamia (Physarum) polycephala is an unusually adventurous eater who also enjoys mushrooms, oats, and probably a number of other things!

I wonder what's up with the peanut

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