jayrockin:

despazito:

palaeofail-explained:

You know what else fucks me up? Algae.

This is a single-celled organism.

an independent woman

I see doubt in the notes so just wanted to say that YES, this is a unicellular organism! This is a species from a genus of green algae called Caulerpa, which are a siphonous algae. The frond shapes, the “rhizomes” it grows from, and the “roots” it extends into substrate are all extensions of a single multi-nucleate cell. Here’s what a siphonous alga looks like under a microscope, with no divisions in its cytoplasm:

image

It’s not the only algae like this, either! Caulerpa is a member of order Bryopsidales, which are all siphonous. Here’s some more macroscopic single cell algae:

Codium fragile, or dead man’s fingers. This one is a single long noodle of a cell with swollen growths on the outside called urtricles, packed together to create a firm “skin.”

image
image

Halimenia, a calcified algae whose shed growths are responsible for a lot of the beautiful white sand on tropical beaches:

image

Acetabularia

or mermaid’s wine glass, the adorable mushrooms of the sea:

image

Algae? Is actually very cool. And you can’t convince me otherwise.

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