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Unicellular "Enigma" Changes From Predator To Plant and Back

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-don't-eat-greens,-food-eats-greens dept.

SilverEar writes "Imagine a creature that swims and preys on others, but once it eats a certain kind of plant, that plant grows inside it, causing the predator to lose its ability to prey and start using sunlight to make its food. Its preying mouth is replaced by an eye that is needed to find sunlight. This is the Hatena ('enigma' in Japanese). The kicker: when Hatena reproduces, one offspring is a peaceful photosynthesizer with the sun-seeking eye, while the other is yet again a predator with a voracious mouth."

20 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. PETA will be confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Plant or animal! Prepare the soft padded cells.

    1. Re:PETA will be confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Easy solution: they will demand that plants possess the same rights as animals. Since they already demand that animals possess the same rights as humans, it will then follow that they will choose not to eat plant-based food just as they refuse to eat animal-based food (i.e., meat). This will leave them without a source of food, and the smart ones will abandon the cause while the dumb ones will die off.

    2. Re:PETA will be confused by Starlon · · Score: 4, Funny

      This thing sounds worse than a Politician to me.

      Fixed that for you.

      --
      Health Freedom is almost as popular as Freedom itself.
    3. Re:PETA will be confused by sjames · · Score: 3, Funny

      I suspect politicians are simply a colony of these. Their campaigning certainly is preditory, and once they get into office, they become vegetables.

      Every 4 years they shed their sessile nature and hit the campaign trail again.

    4. Re:PETA will be confused by Anenome · · Score: 2, Funny

      Carrot Juice is Murder:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

      --
      "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
  2. Public Service Announcement by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is your creator deity... And this is your creator deity on drugs.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:Public Service Announcement by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've known that since the momemt I heard about the platypus.

      I still have this image of God and Devil sitting in a bar at the end of the universe, had a few beer, God doodles the platypus on a napkin and Devil manages to snort out a "dare ya!" between giggles.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Ugh by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Funny

    The kicker: when Hatena reproduces, one offspring is a peaceful photosynthesizer with the sun-seeking eye, while the other is yet again a predator with a voracious mouth.

    Sound like my wife

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:Ugh by haifastudent · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sound like my wife

      What's my father in law doing browsing Slashdot?

      --
      Thank for reading to the sig. You may stop reading now. It is safe. There is no more content. Why are you still reading?
    2. Re:Ugh by beckett · · Score: 2, Funny

      so at least you can bang her sun bathing sister, rite?

  4. Why does this sound so familiar? by Mitchell314 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hrm, one sibling is conniving and aggressive; and the other prefers to be left to its own devices. Sounds just like humans.

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  5. Memeaholic by senorpoco · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new single celled predatory overlords, but deride their single celled hippy photosynthesizing cousins.

    1. Re:Memeaholic by H0p313ss · · Score: 2, Funny

      I for one welcome our new single celled predatory overlords, but deride their single celled hippy photosynthesizing cousins.

      Phylumist!

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Re:Interesting find... by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 4, Funny

    That sounds good, can you make some toast for me please? Someone else here is bound to be a butter knife, so maybe we can get a team effort going?

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
  8. I hate to admit... by hedgemage · · Score: 4, Funny

    But when I read the article summary, one of the first questions on my mind was... How does it interact with Japanese schoolgirls?

  9. Re:Sounds like the foundation for a 5-volume fanta by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please. Not so loud. Fox is looking for a sitcom theme for next season.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Gives a whole new meaning to... by Randwulf · · Score: 3, Funny

    You are what you eat!

  11. Re:Interesting find... by BlackusDiamondus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh my God! You're right! I don't anything for sure.

    JESUS CHRIST! What if I'm really a toaster?

    I mean, I have a lot of the same qualities as a human being, but that doesn't prove anything. What if I'm supposed to be making toast right now?!?!?

    The toasters were created by man...they rebelled, they evolved, they look...Human!

    --
    Shit happens and it's usually caused by assholes
  12. Old news by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    A food that, when eaten, transforms an agressive predator into a passive life form....

    Wedding cake.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.