#asplanchna

"There are simple and effective methods on the one end, and the complex organs on the other, so what comes in the middle? Well, let's take a look at this Asplanchna. It looks weird, even for a rotifer. At around half a millimeter long, it's on the large size for what we normally see, but it's still a microscopic metazoan which means that unlike our single-celled eukaryote friends, its body has organs."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Do Microorganisms Pee?

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"Some of these organs seem roughly familiar, like the Asplanchna's stomach. The space around those organs is not empty. It's full of fluid, giving the rotifer something to monitor and regulate for the sake of its own survival. To do that, the Asplanchna and other simple multicellular organisms like it rely on a structure called the protonephridium, which begins--oddly enough--at the end: with a set of hallow cells called terminal organs."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Do Microorganisms Pee?

CC: "The remarkable thing about waste is that, like water, we all have to deal with it. It is every bit as much a part of life as the living itself is, proff that our bodies have done something, consumed something, made something. The only thing more remarkable is that even when the basic principles of waste management stay the same, the end resulsts can look so different."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Do Microorganisms Pee?

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"A fun side note: cloacas act as a sort of multi-purpose opening. In the case of the rotifer, yes it is used for peeing. It's also used for giving birth. So maybe you're swimming in rotifer pee, or maybe you're swimming in rotifer babies. Whichever one it is, it all came from the same place."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Do Microorganisms Pee?

"How does this fit in with our vision of immortality? It's hard to know. At this point, the question of whether we should consider a flask of bacteria immortal starts to feel like a matter of semantics. It's informed as much by personal and philosophical ideas as it is by biological ones. But of course, some of the most interesting questions of science and philosophy boil down to issues of semantics. These aren't just questions of how the world exists, but also of how we see the world, how we describe it to each other, how we imagine it."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Do Microscopic Immortals Actually Exist?

Asplanchna Rotifera