[Read all stories about plankton weapons]
At the center of this scaly fish picture, the finger projection of ballistic plankton is called pocket. When it comes into contact with prey, it will explode and may spray sticky substances at unsuspecting prey. In less than a millisecond, an apical needle was ejected from the sac under the tapeworm sac and stabbed the prey.
Cutting-edge weapon (Tillman City) A scanning electron microscope image of a scaly fish showing ballistic organelles of plankton. These organelles are similar to the spines of jellyfish and other animals, but new research shows that they evolved independently in dinoflagellate.
A plankton predator (city Tillman) may have developed a competition similar to a harpoon to respond to the evolutionary arm. Its flagellate prey includes toxic plankton that causes red tides. Other prey have their own complex defense mechanisms and armor.
Close-up of Polykrikos Kofoidii. For the first time, researchers filmed a high-speed video of this plankton preying on prey. Greg Gavelis, a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University, said that it is not clear how Dockery Cox triggered the attack, but this plankton may detect the chemical signals of prey in the water. Gavlis said that they swim in a spiral. In the face of potential food, these spirals become tighter and tighter. "It started circling around its prey like a shark," he told Life Science. KDSP ballistic organelles KDSP, KDSP, KDSP, KDSP (image source: Urban Tillman) and KDSP often land in dinoflagellate which produces red tides, thus releasing toxins, making shellfish dangerous to people, which will make beach swimming unsafe. "This is the enemy of our enemy," Vilis said. These guns are on our side.
Take a closer look at Polykrikos kofoidii, a planktonic dinoflagellate with an impressive weapon called Nematode Capsule. Each nematode cyst has a coiled tubule, and its tip is called a tube string. When touching, the tubule shoots outward, and the style pierces the prey of dinoflagellate. The coil melted, but a separate tow rope pulled the prey towards the waiting predator.
Gavelis said that the complex anatomical structure (city Tillman) dinoflagellate is "basically the coolest". For single-celled organisms, Dockery (pictured) and its close relatives have extremely complex structures and behaviors. Many are bioluminescent. They often wear armor or carry thorns. The organelles of another dinoflagellate, Netmatodinium, look like primitive eyes.
Urban Tillmann, because there are nematodes in animals called Echinococcus, biologists think that maybe dinoflagellate may have the same ancestor as jellyfish or coral, or maybe they have the same gene through the relationship of * * *. However, the latest research published in the journal Science Progress found that there is no genetic relationship between nematodes and dinoflagellates. They have evolved similar defense systems.
An arms race (Tillman City) dinoflagellate may evolve into a complex weapon in an arms race of "eating" or "being eaten". Researchers are now testing whether these creatures developed more weapons at an early stage than unarmed plankton.
[Read all the reports about plankton weapons]