Hydrothermal Worm Viewed Under An Electron Microscope (PHOTO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/hydrothermal-worm-electron-microscope_n_901833.html
This is not photoshop, no clever graphics, no movie scene... it's a hydrothermal worm.
And it's a real creature.
Not much bigger than a bacterial cell,* this little darling is a complete animal with jaws, teeth, and everything. See article linked above for even more interesting details.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*Not "bacterium," which is the singular form of the plural "Bacteria," and refers to every single damn cell containing exactly the same, distinct genotype of every other cell belonging to that bacterium, just as "multicellular organism" refers to every single cell in the body of that organism -- the only difference is that the cells of a given bacterium can be spread out all over hell and creation, while those of a multicellular organism are, shall we say, much more compact, i.e., all in one body. In other words, "unicellular" life is just as multicellular as (officially) multicellular life, only not as picky about where its individual cells are to be located.
This is not photoshop, no clever graphics, no movie scene... it's a hydrothermal worm.
And it's a real creature.
Not much bigger than a bacterial cell,* this little darling is a complete animal with jaws, teeth, and everything. See article linked above for even more interesting details.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*Not "bacterium," which is the singular form of the plural "Bacteria," and refers to every single damn cell containing exactly the same, distinct genotype of every other cell belonging to that bacterium, just as "multicellular organism" refers to every single cell in the body of that organism -- the only difference is that the cells of a given bacterium can be spread out all over hell and creation, while those of a multicellular organism are, shall we say, much more compact, i.e., all in one body. In other words, "unicellular" life is just as multicellular as (officially) multicellular life, only not as picky about where its individual cells are to be located.