I finally found my first stentor. Stentor are one of the most fascinating single celled organisms to me. They are one of the largest single cells on earth growing to upwards of 2mm.
One species called Stentor Roeseli has been documented as having somewhat complex decision making skills. When disturbed by the rude scientists, the stentor will initially bend out of the way of the disturbance. If it continues, the stentor will contract its body or reverse the beating of its cilia to remove the disturbance. If the disturbance persists after that, the stentor will finally give up and swim to a new location to search for food. The order and duration of these behaviors varied between individuals, implying that this is truly decision making by a single cell with no nervous system. I have met a lot of human beings with less decision making ability than this, so who really is the “higher life form”?
Source: Joseph P. Dexter et al. A Complex Hierarchy of Avoidance Behaviors in a Single-Cell Eukaryote. Current Biology, published online December 5, 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.059
One species called Stentor Roeseli has been documented as having somewhat complex decision making skills. When disturbed by the rude scientists, the stentor will initially bend out of the way of the disturbance. If it continues, the stentor will contract its body or reverse the beating of its cilia to remove the disturbance. If the disturbance persists after that, the stentor will finally give up and swim to a new location to search for food. The order and duration of these behaviors varied between individuals, implying that this is truly decision making by a single cell with no nervous system. I have met a lot of human beings with less decision making ability than this, so who really is the “higher life form”?
Source: Joseph P. Dexter et al. A Complex Hierarchy of Avoidance Behaviors in a Single-Cell Eukaryote. Current Biology, published online December 5, 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.059
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