I'm so conflicted... | Our environment is doomed! |
 Japanese scientists have found a mysterious marine microbe, half of which cells eat algae like animals while the rest perform photosynthesis like plants. | Neither fish nor fowl nor turnip... |
Professor Isao Inoue, a member of the University of Tsukuba research team, told the Mainichi Daily News
| ... which translated from Japanese means "Daily Daily News"... |
he believes the microbe demonstrates part of the process of single-cell marine microbes evolving into plants. The research team discovered the single-cell microbe, a kind of flagellate, on a beach in Wakayama Prefecture, and called it "hatena" or "mystery."
Hedorah Hatena, the smog monster, destroys Japan and fights Godzilla while spewing his poisonous gas to further the damage. |
| "Hunh! Hatena! Ret's run!" |
The microbe is originally green and is made up of algae. When it divides into two cells, one takes over the algae from its parent and remains green and the other turns colorless, Mainichi reported.
| By turning colorless, it cleverly disguises itself as... ummm... nothing. |
The animal-type colorless cell develops an organ like a mouth
| A big mouth, large enough to swallow the entire Dai Ichi Hotel at a single gulp... |
and uses it to eat
| ...entire districts of Tokyo... |
algae, while the plant-type green one uses algae it has in its body to perform photosynthesis and produce energy, according to the team.
| So half of it eats what the other half is, and the other half eats Shimbashi Station... |
The researchers believe that as the marine microbes evolve into plants, only the chloroplasts in algae they had taken in their cells developed, while the other organs degenerated. |