Danish researchers have discovered a mysterious creature that is neither animal or plant.

Maybe it is only new to this planet.

Extraterrestrials

Remember the BLOB?
and to think we always thought it was from HollyWood

I'd classify it as anima(microorganism)l. With photosynthetic capabilities! VERY COOL! We could isolate the gene that does that, and apply it to our own DNA and see what happens! Imagine just going tanning to eat actually very very interesting concept

Someone could get a university to throw some $$ at this

Originally posted by truthinfact
I'd classify it as anima(microorganism)l. With photosynthetic capabilities! VERY COOL! We could isolate the gene that does that, and apply it to our own DNA and see what happens! Imagine just going tanning to eat

actually very very interesting concept

Someone could get a university to throw some $$ at this

edit on 18-1-2012 by truthinfact because: (no reason given)

I was going to suggest that. Two things that plant cells have that animal cells don't are the ability to produce energy from light, and a walled structure that makes them much tougher than ours. A hybrid would have much more advanced cellular capability than us.

planimal pods from space

www.captmondo.com...

The theory that it might come from space isn't so strange at all if you think about the amount of meteors that crash.
Some people even believe all life on earth originated from another place far away in space.

Originally posted by Wotan
Its the first evolution of The Triffid

Yeah , The Triffids from Day of The Triffards was the first thing that popped into my head when seeing the pics.
Its now Science Non Fiction!...

Hmmm. Genuinely interesting!

But, where do Venus Fly Traps fit in? Don't they do this?

reply to post by Qumulys


I wondered the same. Apparently it falls under plantae but wiki doesn't say why.

But this description sort of resembles a Venus Fly Trap, am I not mistaken?
EDIT: just saw you said it before. sorry

Originally posted by lonegurkha
I wonder if this organism could be the missing link between plants and animals.
Which came first the chicken or the egg?
Nice find OP.

Everyone knows that the rooster came first

Interesting creature, thanks for posting, but I don't know why we are always so amazed when things slip between classifications like this. Remember it was just a man, Carl Linnaeus who invented the biological divisions and classifications and they are fairly arbitrary. I mean, one of the biggest divisions is based on whether creatures have a backbone or not (vertebrates/invertebrates).

It seems obvious that we would end up with things that don't quite fit or need new classifications, like this creature, duck-billed platypuses, sponges. The classifications were invented to fit the organisms, not the other way around. Every time we find something that doesn't fit it really just signifies an imperfection in the classification system. Not that I'm knocking it - I admit Mr Linnaeus probably made a better job of it than I would have.

Cool beast though, good stuff

Its a baby Elder Thing... this is not good.

en.wikipedia.org...

I CAN SEE FOREVER

Maybe its a type of jellyfish. They don't have brains and also use the suns energy. Very similar traits.

reply to post by grey580


nice simpsons reference!

reply to post by rangersdad


I presume that you mean that literally. LOL

Originally posted by Qumulys
Hmmm. Genuinely interesting!

But, where do Venus Fly Traps fit in? Don't they do this?

I think the difference is because this is an animal with independent movement and presumably spacial awareness if it can actively hunt - with added photosynthesis too. Whereas carnivorous plants simply have the additional ability to process organic matter.

So a Venus Fly Trap is a plant with animal traits, and this is an animal with plant-like traits. The former we've known about for a long time, the latter we've only just discovered is possible.

But it does actually seem pretty logical that if we are aware of plant life that sustains itself through photosynthesis and digestion (through want of a better word) we would eventually find an animal with the ability to sustain itself through photosynthesis. I wonder why people are so surprised that it exists.

It's a cool find, and definitely worthy of discussion and research in the future. But I think a lot of people expected it to exist and that we just hadn't found it yet.

And from henceforth, thou shalt be named... Mopface!

reply to post by Mianeye


How very interesting, good find sir, I immediately began to think of the stories of alien greys that are more plant than animal, using a kind of bio-synthesis more akin to plant energy production than the matter/energy conversions of animals.
Maybe this is the future for life on this planet, and off it, i guess it has a good survivability factor versus most kinds of ELE's.