Paris zoo unveils the ‘blob’ slime mould with 720 sexes which looks like a fungus but acts like an animal – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Paris zoo unveils the ‘blob’ slime mould with 720 sexes which looks like a fungus but acts like an animal

Posted October 17, 2019 10:31:07

A Paris zoo has showcased a mysterious new organism, dubbed the “blob”, a yellowish unicellular small living being which looks like a fungus but acts like an animal.

Key points:

This newest exhibit of the Paris Zoological Park, which will go on display to the public this weekend, has no mouth, no stomach, no eyes, yet it can detect food and digest it.

The blob also has almost 720 sexes, can move without legs or wings and heals itself in two minutes if cut in half.

“The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature’s mysteries”, said Bruno David, director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, of which the Zoological Park is part.

“It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn.

“If we put it in a maze, it will learn and take the best route out of the maze to find its food. If we put an obstacle in front of it — the blob hates salt, for example — it won’t get past it right away, even if there is food behind it.

“Then the blob will learn how to get past the barrier and get to its food, and it will start to do this more quickly and more strongly.

“If we fuse two blobs together, the one which learned will transmit its knowledge to the other, and so, it will know directly how to get past this barrier.”

The blob was named after a 1958 science-fiction horror B-movie, starring a young Steve McQueen, in which an alien life form, The Blob, consumes everything in its path in a small Pennsylvania town.

“We know for sure it is not a plant but we don’t really know if it’s an animal or a fungus,” Mr David said.

“It behaves very surprisingly for something that looks like a mushroom … it has the behaviour of an animal, it is able to learn.”

This content was originally published here.



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