Meet the 'Blob' an alien-like creatures on Earth

This blob has no brain, eyes, or mouth, let alone arms or legs. Even more surprising than its 720 genders - scientists consider this creature an intelligent being.

But what is this being? Is it an animal, a plant, or a fungus? According to Dr. Bruno David, the director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, the answer isn't clear. Dr. David told Reuters: "We know for sure it is not a plant, but we don't really [know] if it's an animal or a fungus."

Taxonomists have classified the blob as 'Physarum polycephalum', along with 900 other relatives, into the kingdom of protists (protozoa). It is a slime mold known more formally as a plasmodium.

Photo: By frankenstoen - flickr, Wikicommons

However, these mini-beasts are not like conventional fungi. Plasmodiums are unique because, as described in Forbes magazine, "...each individual cell contains many nuclei (most animal cells have just one nucleus)."

Physarum polycephalum may have gotten its nickname of 'Blob' from the 1958 horror film 'The Blob', in which an alien creature named the Blob ate everything in its path, but fortunately, the real blob only feeds on fungi and bacteria.

Pictured: theatrical poster for the film 'The Blob', 1958.

This strange being can eat food without a mouth or stomach by digesting it with the help of an enzyme.

Studies have shown that the organism can find the shortest route in a maze and mark previously visited areas with the trail of its mucus - all without a brain.

French animal behavior specialist Audrey Dussutour is co-author of a study on 'Blob' that shows this single-celled organism, which looks like an 'anamorphic omelet,' is capable of learning despite the lack of neurons.

Pictured: Audrey Dussutour holding a blob in her laboratory at the Animal Cognition Research Center of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse 2019.

According to the researchers, the protozoa can even pass on acquired knowledge. All you have to do is bring two blobs together and one organism will transfer its knowledge to the other.

The reproduction of the blob is not like that of many other creatures, where the egg and sperm cell fuse together.

'Blob' transfers information directly from a donor cell to a recipient cell, which can happen in 720 different ways. "So talking about gender is a bit imprecise," explains researcher Audrey Dussutour.

In 2019, the mysterious creature became the star of the Paris Zoo. Here 'Blob's' keepers discovered that Blob loves oatmeal and will move to find it...at a speed of four centimeters per hour.

Pictured: Screen at Paris Zoo 2019 showing an enlarged image of a Physarum Polycephalum.

The slime mold is capable of doubling its volume per day and growing to several square meters. If you cut Blob in half, the cell is functional again within two minutes. No wonder this creature has existed for almost a billion years and scientists are fascinated by it.

"This creature is one of the mysteries of nature," Dr. Bruno David, director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, told Reuters.

However, the blob isn't the only fantastic creature that scientists study. This next bizarre creature can survive under even the direst circumstances.

They are considered real survivors who can withstand the most extreme temperatures as well as radioactive radiation, lack of oxygen or drought. But are the tardigrades really indestructible?

One characteristic of these creatures is cryptobiosis, a death-like state in which they can survive extreme environmental conditions.

They live in moist moss or in the deep sea, in the Antarctic, in the rainforest or in the back garden. Actually everywhere, but seeing them is still extremely difficult...

The reason: they are only between 100 and 1500 microns in size. And they have nothing in common with bears despite their name. They are called tardigrades or water bears because of their sluggish movements are reminiscent of those of bears. Its scientific name is Tardigrada, which translates to "slow steps."

A 2006 study showed that inactive tardigrades can withstand a temperature of 151ºC/303.8ºF for at least half an hour.

"I suspect that they can survive for decades in a frozen state," explained zoologist and biologist Georg Mayer (pictured) of the Institute of Biology in Leipzig in 2013. He and his colleagues identified previously unknown elements of the nervous system in the animals.

But they obviously don't like long-lasting heat. This is shown by a study (published in scientific reports) carried out by the biologist Ricardo Neves from the University of Copenhagen.

The result: 50 percent of the animals that were exposed to a temperature of 37.1ºC/98.7ºF for 24 hours died.

This means that even these animals, famous for being survivors, could suffer from climate change and global warming.

In 2019, an Israeli spacecraft crash-landed on the lunar surface. There were also plenty of tardigrades released in the crash. Who knows if they now live on the moon...