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An Unassuming Predator
This retiring plankton is a venomous predatory animal . Polykrikos kofoidiiis a dinoflagellate that eats other dinoflagellates . It captures them with diminutive weapons call nematocysts , which are like harpoons that pierce their prey and drag them in to be engulfed and support .
[ Read the full story on plankton weaponry ]
Ballistic Plankton
The fingerbreadth - alike projection in the center of this figure of speech ofPolykrikos kofoidiiis called a taeniocyst . When it contact feed , it blow up , possibly spewing an adhesive substance all over the unsuspecting target . Within a msec , a pointed stylet come shooting out of the space capsule below the taeniocyst , spearing the quarry .
Sophisticated weaponry
An SEM persona ofPolykrikos kofoidiishowing the plankton ’s ballistic organelle . These cell organ are similar to the stingers on jellyfish and other animals cry cnidarians , but new research finds that they germinate independently in dinoflagellate .
Plankton predator
Polykrikos kofoidiimay have make grow its harpoon - like stinger in response to an evolutionary arms race . Its dinoflagellate prey includes the toxic plankton that get red tide . Other prey have their own complicated defense mechanism and armor .
Polykrikos
A secretive - up ofPolykrikos kofoidii . For the first sentence , researcher have captured high - speed picture of this plankton hunt its prey . It is n’t clear yet precisely howPolykrikostriggers its flack , said Greg Gavelis , a postdoctoral research worker at Arizona State University , but the plankton may detect chemic signals from their prey in the water . They swim in spiral patterns , Gavelis say , and those spirals become pixilated and tighter in the presence of potential food . “It get circling its fair game almost like a shark , " he told Live Science .
Ballistic Organelle
Polykrikos kofoidiioften descends upon the species of dinoflagellate that produce red tides , which allow off toxins that can make mollusc life-threatening for people to eat and that can make beaches unsafe for swimming . “This is an foe of our enemy , " Gavelis said . " These guns are on our side . "
Tiny spirals
A tight look atPolykrikos kofoidii , a planktonic dinoflagellate with telling weaponry called nematocysts . Inside each nematocyst is a coil tubule with a sharp tip called a stylet . When triggered , the tubule shoots outward and the stylet pierces the dinoflagellate ’s prey . The coil dissolve , but a separate tow furrow draw the prey toward the waiting marauder .
Complex Anatomy
Dinoflagellates are " basically the coolest , " Gavelis said . For single - celled being , Polykrikos(seen here ) and its relatives have incredibly complex structures and behaviors . Many are bioluminescent . They ’re often armored or armed with stingers . Netmatodinium , another dinoflagellate , has an organelle that depend like a primitive optic .
Independent Evolution
Because fauna call cnidarians have nematocysts , biologists thought perhaps dinoflagellate might have some common ascendent with cnidarians like jellyfish or corals — or that perhaps coelenterate and dinoflagellate had share cistron via symbiosis . But new enquiry published in the daybook Science Advances retrieve no genetic relationship between the nematocysts of cnidarians and dinoflagellate . They germinate similar defense separately .
Arms race?
dinoflagellate may have evolve their complex weaponry in an eat - or - be - eaten branch slipstream against one another . Researchers are now testing whether these being develop more weapons in the presence of armed opponent versus unarmed plankton .
