Xenophyophores are awesome, unique and quite frankly, pretty strange...
But first let me introduce my "A Thing I Learned Today" series of posts. I don't think I qualify as a newbie here anymore, yet I've been a bit slow to start posting regularly. I decided that I must change that and start publishing the type of content I would loke to see on steemit myself. That's why I decided to start posting interesting things I've learned about science with the goal of having at least a few posts per week like that to give me a push into more regular posting. Now off to the real content...
Xenophyophores: Giant Readioactive Single Cells From The Bottom Of The Ocean
Image Credit: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift Expedition 2011
As most people interested in science or nature know, we know more about space than we know about the oceans on our own planet. And keeping their sheer size and depth in mind, we shouldn't be surprised that the ocean floors are full of strange and unique creatures that are very different from the life we are used to and that we know very little about.
One such creature is the Xenophyophore. It's a single-cell organism, but it's actually pretty huge for a cell - most specimens are about 10 centimeters / 4 inches with the largest ones reaching double that size. It's basically one huge amoeba-like organism that makes a kind of frilly shell called test for itself from particles it finds floating around and falling on or near it.
These organisms are quite abundant on the deep ocean floors throughout the planet and the fact that we currently know very little about them is a testament to how much we have left to learn about the ecosystems we are part of.
Image Credit: IFE, URI-IAO, UW, Lost City Science Party; NOAA/OAR/OER; The Lost City 2005 Expedition
So here are 4 interesting things about Xenophyophores.
1. They are unicellular, but have multiple nuclei
Unlike most other organisms of similar sizes on our planet, Xenophyophore are made up by one huge single cell. To put things in perspective, we could say that billions of regular humans cells could fit into the space a single organism occupies. One of the things that make this possible and allows this single cell to perform all kinds of functions unlike the specialized ones we have, is the multiple nuclei spread throughout its volume.
2. They tend to be radioactive
Despite the fact that we are still not fully familiar with the exact process these organisms use to form their tests, we know one peculiar outcome of it. For some reason, Xenophyophores tend to end up with larger percentage of radioactive metals like uranium in their tests which makes them more irregularly radioactive.
3. We can't grow them in a lab
Xenophyophores are fascinating and marine biologists are eager to study them, but unfortunately they are quite fragile, so it's hard to move them around to study and we are yet absolutely unable to grow them in a lab. They simply require specific conditions that are very hard to get right and this further hinders our ability to study them properly.
4. Xenophyophores are neither animals, plants or fungus
They are protists with other examples of such organisms being algae. This means that their bodies (or in other words their single cells) functions differently from what biologists are generally used to. This only comes back to highlight how much it is too learn about the ocean floor and its ecosystem and the role the relatively abundant Xenophyophores play in it.
Image Credit: IFE, URI-IAO, UW, Lost City Science Party; NOAA/OAR/OER; The Lost City 2005 Expedition
2/3 of the planet is covered with water.
Indeed, it is. But if you look at habitable space the difference between land and ocean becomes even larger because of all the vertical space for life provided by depth.
I've actually been thinking about that quiet a lot lately.
I've come to the conclusion that living on a boat would not be significantly different than the way I live now, or have been for the last thirty years.
think about it...how often do you 'go outside'...away from artificial constructions?
Most people leave their climate controlled homes...get into their climate controlled vehicles (manytimes it's in a garage)...drive to work ...park in a garage....spend all day in a climate controlled building...
wash...rinse and repeat..
how different would that be from living on a boat?
or a ship.
or seastead..?
(artificial island?...or perhaps think outside the box?)
That's an absolutely fascinating point and for many people it will not make such a huge difference as long as their basic needs are met. The only thing missing from my weekly routine would be a place to walk the dog and a place to go hiking. But still, instead of driving out of the city for a hike, one would take their boat to shore. And if the boat/barge is large enough, walking the dog might not be such a problem. You could have a floating barge city and I've seen futurists talk about the inevitability of floating cities in the future.
And we know living on a boat is absolutely doable, there are people working on cruise ships that do that for months. I have musician friends who have spent a significant portion of their adult lives at sea (more than they have on land actually for some).
there are 42,000 abandoned Oil Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico...
just sitting there..
bigger than apartment buildings...and that's just the hundred foot or so that's above the water..
some of the very best fishing in the Gulf is at those abandoned oil rigs..
and then there's this.
I think this is the technology the futurists were hoping for.
It's not a new technology.
Today in Indonesia..the sea nomads.
in ancient times
sea people
That is ONE big cell :)
Oh, the things that remain to be discovered in the Depths are going to be amazing :D
There sure are. Everything we've found so far seems to be amazing and there are a ton of organisms that defy the laws of biology we are familiar with for now so there is surely really a lot to learn. There are people that argue that it's more important to explore the deep oceans than it is to explore space and their arguments are certainly not without some merit.
I prefer seeing Science not as a single spider that has to choose where to make its web, but a gigantic army of spiders that can explore every single possibility more or less in parallel.
It wouldn't hurt to assign more "spiders" to taking care of our world (actually, we REALLY need to concentrate more on our world, but it seems like people are realizing that, given how many countries are suddenly getting on-board the green energy gravy train...)
Oh, sure, I agree with that view wholeheartedly. Humanity should invest as much resources as possible into science and technology.
The bottom of the sea fascinates me., wonder what is down there :)
A lot of strange and interesting forms of life, that's for sure. Life that we know little about.
And will probably never know
Well, I hope we'll keep learning and we'll know more and more.
I'm just curious if they did a DNA sequence on this critter? Maybe so since they were able to decide that it was related algae. I didn't know any organism had more than one nuclei. Thanks for a very interesting article I probably would not of found otherwise
I think they've looked at some DNA but haven't done a full sequencing. I think they probably have the classification spot on since it's an organism we've known about for decades, but there is always the chance to uncover even more.