Sliming Their Way Into Affections?

 

Lucy Jones and others, sing the praises of Slime moulds (Myxomycetes). They are interesting acellular organisms, often, like fungi, with attractive fruiting bodies. Jones points out that they're often to be found, with a hand lens, on the undersides of wet logs and broken twigs. Slime moulds have been credited with interesting powers of 'learning', with no obvious mechanism for retaining information. They have also proved to be interesting model organisms in many areas, notably including town planning (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/08/slime-mould-dark-matter-transport-networks). Jones notes that Slime moulds were once classified in the Fungal kingdom, but have, she says, now been transferred to that of the Protista. Protists are basically organisms that are unicellular or acellular (depending of your taste). Many Biologists, however, think the Protista is a polyphyletic grouping. This acellular state appears to have independently arisen on a number of occasions. So, Protists are not inter-related. Evolution doesn't always make organisms more complex. Simplification may have benefits for a number of lifestyles. Think of the changes seen in the bodies of endoparasites (internal organisms, like flatworms, that live in our guts). Some Protists (e.g. Amoeba and Plasmodium) are clearly animal. Others (Euglena and Chlamydomonas), are unicellular plants.  There's a distinct probability, that Slime moulds are Fungi that have adopted a non-cellular existence. That, of course, doesn't make them any less interesting.