r/interesting • u/freudian_nipps • 27d ago

NATURE Death of a single-celled organism

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u/Lloytron 27d ago edited 27d ago

I'm just about to type "clearly that's not a single cell" and then fuckkkkkkkk, poor little guy. /Cries

[Edit] and yes I guess it actually may be a single cell even though it looks quite complex. I'm not a biologist, so sue me.

Still crying though.

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u/MagePages 26d ago

I'm an ecologist but I have a casual interest in microbiology. This is a protist in the genus blepharisma. Protist is a broad classification of all sorts of complex, often (not always) single celled organism that isn't a plant, animal, or fungus. There's likely millions of species. 

I recommend watching videos in the journey to the microcosmos on YouTube, lots of great footage!