Watch slime molds move
These enigmatic creatures (see our past post on them at http://bit.ly/29HMGyo) were once classified as fungi, but have different kinds of cell wall, while exhibiting some of the capabilities and behaviour of animals. There are many kinds, but they have navigated mazes to find foos, placed themselves on petri dishes to get the best balance of nutrients (where for example on half has sugar and the other protein in the agar gel). They also bud and fruit releasing spores.
The black and white is not from the cult classic ‘The Blob’, it was shot by a Princeton biologist during his long career studying these creatures (which earned him the unofficial title of the Patriarch of the Slime Mold community) revealing some of their complex behaviours. They are semi colonial creatures as well, like sponges, and if separated the parts seek each other out and reform into a new whole. Spending some of their time as individual amoeba like cells, they can gang up and move across the landscape as a mold in search of further food (see the 30 second mark). When they send out their fruiting spores, individual cells are also sacrificing their lives in order that the wider organism might spread.
Loz
Image credit: John Bonner